Methods

The department develops HAMOCC (HAMburg Carbon Cycle) model as an interactive component of the Earth system model, aiming to represent marine ecosystem processes, microbial dynamics, and ocean carbon cycling within a fully coupled modeling framework. Together with collaborators across partner institutes, we contribute to the development of next-generation Earth system models based on the ICON framework.

We focus on increasing the complexity of biogeochemical process representation and the spatial resolution of models to better resolve key physical and biogeochemical dynamics across scales, from mesoscale to submesoscale processes. In our department, Earth system models serve as the primary tool for testing hypotheses, integrating observations, quantifying uncertainties, and assessing how marine biogeochemical cycles regulate carbon uptake, storage, and climate feedbacks under global change.