Despite the model’s utility, there are discrepancies between its
predictions and the observed chemical and biological data. We attribute
these discrepancies to multiple causes. First, our model only
simulates the underlying biogeochemical processes and does not
account for other ecological and physiological factors that determine
organismal distributions. For example, the reference OTU for
methane oxidation is the most abundant methanotroph in the oxic
region, but its distribution does not match the predicted distribution
of methane oxidation, suggesting that the organism performs other
metabolisms or that methane oxidation is not described well by
the model. Second, our model is relatively simple and does not