The Xiamen Symposium on Marine Environmental Sciences

2027 Xiamen Symposium on Marine Environmental Sciences

January 12-15, 2027

A Superorganism Representation for Dynamic Microbial Functional Allocation in Ocean Biogeochemistry Models
ID:917 Oral Presentation

2027-01-12 15:50 (China Standard Time)

Session:Session 16 - Quantifying marine microbial processes in a changing ocean – synthesizing experiments/fieldwork and models/theories

Abstract
Marine microbial communities regulate global carbon storage, nutrient cycling, and oxygen availability, yet their diversity remains difficult to represent in Earth-system models. Most marine ecosystem models simplify this diversity as a set of independently prognosed plankton functional types. Although necessary for tractability, this architecture can become restrictive when community-level biogeochemical function depends on rapid physiological reorganization, functional redundancy, or metabolic strategies that cut across fixed taxonomic categories. Here, we develop a superorganism framework that represents total microbial biomass as a single prognostic state variable, while an environmentally regulated allocation vector partitions that biomass among photosynthetic, heterotrophic, nitrifying, and denitrifying pathways. The framework retains pathway-specific physiological, stoichiometric, and environmental constraints without requiring each pathway to evolve as an independent biomass compartment. In reduced ecological models, the superorganism recovers equilibria mapped from discrete functional-type models and preserves leading aggregate biogeochemical responses, while expressing transient adjustment through internal functional reallocation rather than explicit population turnover. This structure provides a natural representation of continuously varying mixotrophy and rapid metabolic succession. Implemented in a global MITgcm-Darwin configuration, the model reproduces major carbon-cycle patterns while retaining dynamically adjustable functional diversity. The superorganism framework therefore offers a testable alternative to taxon-resolved state variables for Earth-system applications focused on community-level biogeochemical function rather than the population dynamics of individual taxa.
Speaker
Hengdi Liang Carnegie Science

Author
Hengdi Liang Carnegie Science

    Important Dates

    • Jan 30

      2026

      Session / Event proposals open

    • Mar 31

      2026

      Session / Event proposals close
      (Extended to April 7)

    • Apr 30

      2026

      Session acceptance notifications

    • Apr 30

      2026

      Abstract submissions & registration open

    • Jun 30

      2026

      Abstract submissions close
      (Extended to July 21)

    • Aug 31

      2026

      Abstract acceptance notifications

    • Sep 15

      2026

      Scientific program released

    • Oct 15

      2026

      Early bird registration closes

    • Jan 12–15

      2027

      XMAS 2027