biology

Michael Fasham

Michael Fasham is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Michael Fasham rather than just read about it. In short: Michael John Robert Fasham, FRS (29 May 1942 – 7 June 2008) was a British oceanographer and ecosystem modeller. He is best known for his pioneering work in the development of open ocean plankton ecosystem models.

Key takeaways

Michael Fasham belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Michael Fasham to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Michael Fasham from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Michael John Robert Fasham, FRS (29 May 1942 – 7 June 2008) was a British oceanographer and ecosystem modeller. He is best known for his pioneering work in the development of open ocean plankton ecosystem models.

Early life and education Fasham was born in 1942 in Edgware in north London, and attended Kilburn Grammar School in Queen's Park. At the University of Birmingham he initially studied physics, obtaining his first degree in 1963, but moved to marine geology for his PhD, which was awarded in 1968.

Career After his PhD, he joined the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO) in Wormley, and remained with this organisation and its successor institutes throughout his career. Here, together with NIO colleagues, Fasham developed one of the first shipborne computer systems. He also applied his experience in statistics to the biogeography of plankton, a field that was then largely descriptive. This led to a series of papers on plankton distribution, as well as the development of an underway fluorimeter that could be used to measure phytoplankton chlorophyll on hydrographic surveys.

During the 1980s, Fasham began to direct his research toward quantitative treatments of the flows of energy and material through ocean food webs. This work led to the development by Fasham and colleagues of a seminal open ocean plankton ecosystem model. This model, sometimes known by the initials of its authors, "FDM", divides the plankton ecosystem into seven components including phytoplankton and zooplankton, and includes a microbial loop to represent remineralisation. The study is one of the most highly cited papers in the field, and won the American Society of Limnology and Oceanography John Martin Award in recognition of this in 2010. Subsequent joint work with colleagues in Princeton University led to the ecosystem model being one of the first to be applied within a general circulation model of the North Atlantic. In later work, Fasham continued to advance ecosystem models by considering aspects such as parameter optimisation, the balance of autotrophic and heterotrophic plankton, diel vertical migration, and the role of the micronutrient iron in oceanic primary production. Fasham also played an important role in the international Joint Global Ocean Flux Study (JGOFS) that ran from 1987 to 2003, and he served on both the National and International Committees before ultimately taking the role as chair of the International Committee from 1998 to 2000.

Awards and honours Fasham was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 2000, and in 2002 he received the Challenger Society Medal in recognition of his role in marine science.

Personal life Though he officially retired in 2002, Fasham continued his research and teaching, but died in 2008 after a long battle with cancer.

References

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Michael Fasham

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Michael Fasham claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Michael Fasham before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Michael Fasham ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Michael Fasham

In research: Michael Fasham appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Michael Fasham in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Michael Fasham is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1942 births, 2008 deaths, Alumni of the University of Birmingham, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Michael Fasham outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Michael Fasham in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Michael Fasham means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Michael Fasham out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Michael Fasham in simple terms?

Why does Michael Fasham matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Michael Fasham?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Michael Fasham.