Ocean ventilation, or the transfer of tracers from the surface boundary layer into the ocean interior, is a critical process in biogeochemical cycles and the climate system. Here, we assess steady-state ventilation patterns and timescales in three models of ocean transport: a 1º global configuration of the Nucleus for European Modelling of the Ocean (NEMO), a recent 2º solution of the Ocean Circulation Inverse Model (OCIM), and a 2º solution of the Total Matrix Intercomparison (TMI). We release artificial dyes in six surface regions of each model and compare equilibrium dye distributions as well as ideal age distributions. We find good qualitative agreement in large-scale dye distributions across the three models. However, the distributions indicate that TMI and OCIM are more diffusive than NEMO. A shallow bias of North Atlantic ventilation in NEMO contributes to a stronger presence of the North Atlantic dye in the mid-depth Southern Ocean and Pacific. This isopycnal communication between the North Atlantic surface and the mid-depth Pacific is very slow, however, and NEMO simulates a maximum age in the North Pacific about 900 years higher than the data-constrained models. Overly slow North Pacific ventilation persists across NEMO sensitivity experiments encompassing our current best knowledge of diapycnal and isopycnal mixing, pointing to biases in subarctic Pacific dynamics. This study provides a synoptic picture of global ocean ventilation and a framework for assessing its representation in general circulation models.

Diapycnal mixing in the ocean interior has diverse numerical representations in extant global ocean models. These representations affect the simulated transport and storage of oceanic tracers in ways that remain little studied. Here we present the impacts of three different tidal mixing schemes in thousand-year-long simulations with the NEMO global ocean model at one-degree resolution. The first scheme includes local bottom-intensified mixing at internal tide generation sites and a constant background diffusivity. The second explicitly includes both local and remote tidal mixing, with no background diffusivity. The third scheme is identical to the second but has the added contribution of bottom-trapped (subinertial) internal tides, known to be important in polar regions. The three simulations show broadly similar circulation and stratification but important regional differences. Explicit representation of remote tidal mixing strengthens the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation by up to 1.5 x 106 m3 s-1. Inclusion of bottom-trapped internal tides reduces heat reaching Antarctica by eroding Circumpolar Deep Water at southern high latitudes, and reduces the mean age of the global deep (> 2 km) ocean by 10%. The results call for more observational constraints on polar ocean mixing, and point to multi-faceted climatic repercussions of tidal mixing representations.