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John P. Dunne

Research Oceanographer

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Full Curriculum Vitae

Bio

Dr. Dunne is a supervisory research oceanographer leading the Biogeochemistry, Atmospheric Chemistry, and Ecosystems Division of NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, NJ. He is an expert in ocean biogeochemistry, climate and earth system modeling with 30 years of experience developing instruments, collecting field observations, and performing analysis and modeling studies. He co-led GFDL’s Earth System Model Development Team adapting GFDL’s models for coupled carbon-climate studies (ESM2M, ESM2G) participating in the fifth Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project (CMIP5) as well as the more recent climate (CM4) and coupled-carbon-chemistry-climate (ESM4) models participating in the current CMIP6. He has published over 150 peer-reviewed journal articles on topics relating to climate and earth system modeling, ocean ecosystems, and biogeochemistry. Ongoing foci include the merging of observational and modeling constraints on representation of physics and biogeochemistry in coastal, pelagic and benthic oceans, predictability of coupled physical-biological-ecological systems, Earth system interactions, and the role of heat, acidification, hypoxia and other stressors. He recently served as a Lead Author on the IPCC Sixth Assessment Working Group I “Chapter 4: Future global climate: scenario-based projections and near-term information” In addition to his research activities, Dr. Dunne also serves on various international and national committees including the as co-Chair of the World Climate Research Programme’s Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Panel, member of the US Climate Modeling Summit and External Advisory Board to the US GO-BGC program, and GFDL’s science contact for Earth system modeling. He is a member of the American Geophysical Union and has received the Department of Commerce Silver Medal in 2013 and 2022 and NOAA OAR Administrator Award in 2022. He received his BS in Chemistry at UCSD in 1993 before receiving his MS (1996) and PhD (1999) from the UW School of Oceanography.

Research Interests

Dr. Dunne’s spans a range of scientific research topics from the global (such as climate and earth system modeling and the effects of climate variability and change on marine ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles) to the local (such as biogeochemical processes and impacts of eutrophication on coastal ecosystems).  He combines chemical fingerprinting tools with mathematical models of physical and biogeochemical processes to elucidate controls on climate variability and change, biogeochemical cycling, and marine ecological functioning.  He also collaborate on a variety of projects assessing climate change impacts.

Ocean Biogeochemical Model development – For the last decade, he has been working to develop models of global ocean biogeochemical cycling to be incorporated into GFDL’s global models for earth system reanalysis and projection. Earth System Modeling for fully coupled carbon-climate models through representation of the terrestrial and ocean biosphere.

Marine ecosystem model development for mechanistic representation of phytoplankton physiology and trophic interactions (collaboration with Charles Stock)

Biogeochemical cycling inferred from satellites (collaborations with Jorge Sarmiento, Robbie Toggweiler and Burke Hales)

Ocean Acidification

 

Climate impacts on: