Analysis of Net Primary Production Models and Observations in the Tropical Pacific Ocean and Their Relationship with Fisheries Yield

Abstract

Primary production regulates fisheries yield, but testing the degree to which it is so is complicated by our limited ability to measure and model net primary production in the ocean. Herein, I analyze primary production and fisheries yields in the tropical Pacific Ocean, and how uncertainties in physiology parameterizations and in field primary production measurements used in the models’ formulations limit model skill. I find that primary production model choice has an effect on designating sustainable fisheries levels, that model parameterizations are not tuned to the tropical Pacific systems, and that model skill assessment is highly dependent on our understanding of local biomass-productivity dynamics. Moving forward, improving the primary production estimates in the tropical Pacific can be done incorporating understanding of local ocean dynamics into model skill assessments.