Emergent features due to grid-cell biology: synchronisation in biophysical models

Modelling studies of upper ocean phenomena, such as that of the spatial and temporal patchiness in plankton distributions, typically employ coupled biophysical models, with biology in each grid-cell represented by a plankton ecosystem model. It has not generally been considered what impact the choice of grid-cell ecosystem model, from the many developed in the literature, might have upon the results of such a study. We use the methods of synchronisation theory, which is concerned with ensembles of interacting oscillators, to address this question, considering the simplest possible case of a chain of identically represented interacting plankton grid-cells. It is shown that the ability of the system to exhibit stably homogeneous (fully synchronised) dynamics depends crucially upon the choice of biological model and number of grid-cells, with dynamics changing dramatically at a threshold strength of mixing between grid-cells. Consequently, for modelling studies of the ocean the resolution chosen, and therefore number of grid-cells used, could drastically alter the emergent features of the model. It is shown that chaotic ecosystem dynamics, in particular, should be used with care.