Chlorophyll shading reduces zooplankton diel migration depth in a high-resolution physical–biogeochemical model

Poupon, Mathieu A.; Resplandy, Laure; Garwood, Jessica; Stock, Charles; Zadeh, Niki; Luo, Jessica Y.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-851-2025

Articles | Volume 21, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-851-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/os-21-851-2025

© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 21, issue 2

Research article

|

29 Apr 2025

Research article |

| 29 Apr 2025

Chlorophyll shading reduces zooplankton diel migration depth in a high-resolution physical–biogeochemical model

Mathieu A. Poupon, Laure Resplandy, Jessica Garwood, Charles Stock, Niki Zadeh, and Jessica Y. Luo

Data sets

Double-Gyre-MOM6-Input-files M. Poupon https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13847759

World Ocean Atlas 2018 T. P. Boyer et al. https://www.ncei.noaa.gov/archive/accession/NCEI-WOA18

L3 Gridded Data, MLD C. de Boyer Montégut https://cerweb.ifremer.fr/deboyer/mld/Surface_Mixed_Layer_Depth.php

Model code and software

mpoupon/MOM6_Double_Gyre: Double-Gyrev1.0 M. Poupon https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15215671

Short summary

Zooplankton diel vertical migration (DVM) shapes ocean biogeochemical cycles. We present a new DVM model that reproduces migration depths observed in the North Atlantic Ocean. We show that chlorophyll shading contributes to reducing zooplankton migration depth and mainly controls its spatial and temporal variability. Thus, high chlorophyll concentrations may limit carbon sequestration caused by zooplankton migration despite the general abundance of zooplankton migration in these environments.