E. V. Yakushev
Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia
Received September 9, 1996; in final form, October 2, 1997
Abstract—The model proposed describes the processes that control the general features of the global fields of
nutrients. A scheme of chemical–biological transformation of phosphorus compounds (phytoplankton–zoop-
lankton–phosphates–dissolved organic phosphorus–dissolved inorganic phosphorus) is applied to describe the
internal oceanic sources and sinks. Parametrization of hydrophysical processes is implemented with the use of
the data of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research through joining the fields of zonally-averaged
stream functions for the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. The global conveyor-belt scheme obtained provides calcu-
lations of the global fields of phosphate concentrations comparable with the observed ones. It is shown that the
major reason for the difference in mean nutrient concentration in the oceans is the coupled effect of the pro-
cesses of chemical–biological cycling and global circulation processes. The principal feature of the latter ones
is the restriction of the area of generation of the lower-sphere seawater to the North Atlantic region. The model
is used to calculate specific fluxes of phosphates between the oceans and between the oceanic spheres. The
forthcoming versions of the model may be applied to estimations of anthropogenic carbon transfer into the
ocean water.
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