Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 5.2
Analysis of phytopigments through HPLC
Historically, satellite sensors have provided
oceanographers with bulk phytoplankton pigment
concentrations (e.g., chlorophyll
phytoplankton functional types as well. These
satellite missions have provided knowledge and
understanding of a variety of events including
frontal features and episodic blooms on a global
basis. The scienti
) over global
scales with synoptic resolution (McClain
2009
).
CZCS was the beginning of the
a
of satellite
remote sensing of ocean colour. It was a relatively
simple sensor and was successful at the retrieval
of chlorophyll a concentrations in open ocean
waters. Models were then developed that utilized
satellite-derived chlorophyll
era
c community has now moved
on to predicting ecologically signi
cant charac-
teristics of the food web such as size structure as
interpreted for phytoplankton size classes
including picoplankton to microplankton. Ocean
colour has been recognized as an essential climate
variable by the global climate observation system
(GCOS). As the global time series of ocean
colour data grows (CZCS, MODIS and SeaW-
iFS), there is an increase in satellite products
available to study decadal-scale variations
in phytoplankton distribution and primary pro-
duction. Understanding the spatial and temporal
distribution of plant functional types (PFTs) has
allowed the improvement and development of
knowledge on biologically mediated
data along with the
information on photosynthetically available radi-
ation and temperature at the sea surface to com-
pute water column primary production by remote
sensing. However, CZCS performed poorly in
coastal waters. SeaWiFS and MODIS, the suc-
cessor to the CZCS, had better radiometric pre-
cision and more wavebands and was designed to
address the limitations of CZCS, in particular for
applications in coastal waters. Satellites with even
higher spectral resolution followed (e.g., ME-
RIS). Though the newer generations of satellites
were designed for improving performance in
coastal waters, there has been increasing
recognition of their value in the detection of
a
uxes of
elements between the upper ocean and the ocean
interior (Falkowski and Raven
1997
). The
performance of biogeochemical models in the
ocean has improved substantially because of
fl
