Simulation of the Gymnodinium mikimotoi Bloom in Tanabe Bay 1990 based on a One-layer Box Model

Abstract

The temporal change in the algal population growth of Gymnodinium mikimotoi bloom in Tanabe Bay 1990 was simulated using a one-layer box model which consisted of two submodels for algal proliferation and transport. The algal proliferation process was modeled with daily proliferation rates that depended on its own maximal proliferation rates, light intensities and nutrients in the surrounding waters. The transport process was modeled with advective transport rates between inshore and offshore waters. It was assumed that water movements were induced by wind stress and came immediately to a steady state, with the gradient of sea surface level balanced with vertical eddy viscosity. Inshore cell densities were calculated at a daily interval, starting from an initial cell density of the dinoflagellates in the motile form which had overwintered, and varied according to both the daily proliferation rates and the transport rates associated with the offshore cell densities. Calculated cell densities were in general accord with the observed ones.