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
Author
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
