The Biogeochemical Flux Model (BFM) is a generalized marine biogeochemistry model based on a biomass continuum description of lower trophic levels in the marine environment. The major chemical and biological components are described in terms of functional groups by means of the theoretical concepts of Chemical Functional Families and Living Functional Groups (CFF and LFG; Vichi et al., 2023).

From a biological point of view, the biota is subdivided into three major LFGs: producers (phytoplankton), decomposers (pelagic and benthic bacteria) and consumers (zooplankton and zoobenthos). These broad functional classifications are further partitioned into functional subgroups to create a food web (e.g. diatoms, picophytoplankton, microzooplankton, etc.). The different groups interact with each other and with inorganic and organic non-living CFFs to develop the biogeochemical cycles of major elements (C, N, P, Si, O, etc.).

From a mathematical point of view, the BFM is written in terms of a set of ordinary differential equations. Its formulation goes beyond the classical population dynamics models due to the functional approach to marine ecosystems. The model equations allow for a direct coupling with hydrodynamic models in the form of partial differential equations of Advection-Diffusion-Reaction (ADR).

The BFM is a research non-commercial product. It is written in FORTRAN90 (UNIX systems) and made available to the scientific community under an open source licence.

Model details are available at the model community website.

BFM is the marine biogeochemistry component of the CMCC-ESM2 Earth System Model contributing to the CMIP6 exercise (Lovato et al., 2022)

References:

• Vichi M., Lovato T., Butenschön M., Tedesco L., Lazzari P., Cossarini G., Masina S., Pinardi N., Solidoro C., Zavatarelli M. (2023). The Biogeochemical Flux Model (BFM): Equation Description and User Manual. BFM version 5.3. BFM Report series N. 1, Release 1.3, February 2023, Bologna, Italy, http://bfm-community.eu, pp. 104
• Lovato, T., Peano, D., Butenschön, M., Materia, S., Iovino, D., Scoccimarro, E., … & Navarra, A. (2022). CMIP6 simulations with the CMCC Earth system model (CMCC‐ESM2). Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, 14(3), e2021MS002814.

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