Meridional Zonation of the Barents Sea Ecosystem Inferred from Satellite Remote Sensing and In Situ Bio-Optical Observations

• Main Authors: Mitchell, B. G., Brody, Eric A., Yeh, Eueng-Nan, McClain, Charles, Comiso, Josefina
• Other Authors: SCRIPPS INSTITUTION OF OCEANOGRAPHY LA JOLLA CA
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1991
• Subjects: Physical and Dynamic Oceanography; *BANDS(STRIPS); DEPLETION; OPTICAL PROPERTIES; COASTAL REGIONS; OCEAN CURRENTS; BIOLOGY; PHYSICAL PROPERTIES; WATER; NUTRIENTS; SURFACES; COLORS; IMAGES; REMOTE DETECTORS; ARTIFICIAL SATELLITES; SAMPLING; ECOSYSTEMS; TRANSITIONS; ATLANTIC OCEAN; HYDROGRAPHY; BLUE(COLOR); BARENTS SEA; HIGH LATITUDES; STRATIFICATION; SEA WATER; NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN; SUMMER; SATELLITE PHOTOGRAPHY; SPRING SEASON; SCANNERS; ANOMALIES; *ECOSYSTEMS; *OCEANOGRAPHY; *COASTAL REGIONS; OPTICAL ANALYSIS; REMOTE SENSING; SATELLITE IMAGERY; Barents Sea; North Atlantic
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA246323; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA246323

The Barents Sea is a productive, shallow, high latitude marine ecosystem with complex hydrographic conditions. Zonal hydrographic bands defined by a coastal current, North Atlantic water, the polar front and the seasonally variable marginal ice edge zone create a meridional zonation of the ecosystem during the spring summer transition. The features reveal themselves in satellite imagery and by high resolution (vertical and horizontal) physical optical biological sampling. Surprisingly, the long-term (7 year) mean of Coastal Zone Color Scanner (CZCS) imagery reveals the Barents Sea as an anomalous 'blue water' regime at high latitudes that are otherwise dominated by satellite observed surface blooms. A combination of satellite imagery and in situ bio-optical analyses indicate that this pattern is caused by strong stratification in summer with surface nutrient depletion.