Regional to Global Scale Phytoplankton Dynamics: The SeaWiFS Legacy

Dave Siegel, UC SantaBarbara, davey@icess.ucsb.edu (Presenter)
Michael Behrenfeld, Oregon State University, mjb@science.oregonstate.edu
Charles McClain, NASA GSFC, charles.r.mcclain@nasa.gov
Many Others, A bunch of them, email@everywhere.edu

For the past 13 years, the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS) mission provided the first consistent, synoptic observations of global ocean ecosystems. Traditionally, changes in chlorophyll concentrations are used as a metric for phytoplankton abundance and its distribution largely reflects regional patterns in vertical nutrient transport. On regional to global scales, chlorophyll concentrations covary with sea surface temperature (SST) because SST changes track surface light and nutrient conditions. However, the presence of colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) also covaries with SST and its presence interferes with standard chlorophyll retrievals and interpretations of global scales change on interannual time scales. After correcting for CDOM, regional-scale chlorophyll variations are statistically partitioned into changes in biomass, which dominates the high latitude seas and persistent upwelling regions, and physiological photoacclimation of intracellular chlorophyll concentrations, which controls much of the tropical and subtropical oceans. Our analysis of the SeaWiFS demonstrates the complexity of temporal trends in global phytoplankton dynamics and illustrates some of the limitations of assaying global phytoplankton abundances using chlorophyll. Finally, SeaWiFS has provided both a blueprint for creating Earth system climate records and guidance for future satellite missions aimed at making new discoveries of the changing ocean biosphere.

Presentation Type:  Poster

Session:  Other   (Wed 10:00 AM)

Associated Project(s): 

• Behrenfeld, Michael: The Ocean Productivity Website Project and Stewardship of NASA Standard Productivity Products ...details
• Maritorena, Stephane: Algorithm refinement for ocean color ESDR's ...details
• McClain, Chuck: Constructive Assessment of VIIRS Ocean Color Data Quality Towards NASA Climate Data Record Continuity ...details
• Nelson, Norm: Ocean color observations on CLIVAR: Inherent optical properties and community structure on trans-ocean sections. ...details
• Siegel, Dave: A Mechanistic Approach Towards the Remote Assessment of Carbon Export by Sinking Particles in the Open Ocean. ...details

Poster Location ID: 245