Effect of trajectory on particles' cumulative solar radiation exposure simulated by the Connectivity Model System (CMS) model, 2018-01-15 to 2018-12-30

Sunlight irradiance is a source of energy for life on Earth but it can also be a stressor at high dose; marine systems are no exception. Irradiance varies spatially, temporally and with the water bio-optical characteristics and depth, and this variability is expected to increase with climate change. Therefore, quantifying the exposure of living organisms or of particles in the ocean is key to accurately address light-related processes affecting them. Yet, current irradiance exposure estimates are static and neglect the movements of ocean currents or of organisms controlling their vertical distribution. This dataset was generated with the first numerical model capable of tracking the cumulative irradiance of moving particles in a moving ocean. Our novel biophysical modeling framework explicitly estimates the exposure to solar energy irradiance by encompassing ocean circulation modeling output, individual particles’ behavior, and time-varying irradiance from a global environmental model. Several examples of particle trajectories and their exposure to UV radiation are provided for five regions of the global ocean. One set of simulations models virtual organisms, with and without diurnal vertical migration (DVM), which are released as a cohort and tracked for seven days. An additional simulation modeled the passive drift of particles, such as microplastics, drifting in the ocean. In this case, the particles were released in a transect across the Atlantic and tracked for a full year.