The Use of Ocean-Colour Data to Estimate Chl-a Trends in European Seas

• Published in: International Journal of Geosciences
• Main Authors: G. Coppini, V. Lyubarstev, S. Colella, R. Santoleri, T. Christiansen, PINARDI, NADIA
• Other Authors: N. Pinardi
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: ocean color; Kattegat; North East Atlantic
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/11585/468970; https://doi.org/10.4236/ijg.2013.46087

Ocean-colour remote-sensing products have been used to estimate Chl-a trends in European seas with the aim to de- velop a new indicator based on ocean-colour data for the European Environment Agency (EEA). The new indicator, called CSI023(+), derived from satellite ocean-colour pr oducts from the MyOcean Mari ne Core Service (www.myo cean.eu) has been defined and calculated. In our analysis, we have used 3 MyOcean satellite products: 2 global satellite products (SeaWiFS and a merged product) and one regional (adjusted to specific regional Mediterranean conditions) ocean-col- our product. We have evaluated the differences among the 3 different products in estimating Chl-a trends. CSI023(+) complements the EEA CSI023 indicator for eutrophication based on chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) in-situ observations. Analy- sis has revealed the potential of ocean co lour as a CSI023(+) indicator to detect large-scale, and in some cases, even lo- cal-scale, changes and decreasing trends of Chl-a were obs erved throughout the Black Sea, the Eastern Mediterranean, the southern part of the Western Medite rranean, the English Channel and the north part of the North Sea. Large areas with increasing trends were observed in the Bay of Biscay, in the North-East Atlantic regions of Ireland and the UK, in the northern part of the North Sea, in the Kattegat and in the Baltic. Specific analysis has been performed in the Medi- terranean coastal areas using regional products to investigat e local scale results. Validation of ocean-colour products has been carried out through comparison with observations of the Eionet EEA database. The validation results highlight that regional products produced with regional algorithms are recommended for the future.