Mediterranean Ocean Colour Chlorophyll Trends

Abstract

In being at the base of the marine food web, phytoplankton is particularly important for marine ecosystem functioning (e.g., biodiversity). Strong anthropization, over-exploitation of natural resources, and climate change affect the natural amount of phytoplankton and, therefore, represent a continuous threat to the biodiversity in marine waters. In particular, a concerning risks for coastal waters is the increase in nutrient inputs of terrestrial/anthropogenic origin that can lead to undesirable modifications of phytoplankton concentration (i.e., eutrophication). Monitoring chlorophyll (Chl) concentration, which is a proxy of phytoplankton biomass, is an efficient tool for recording and understanding the response of the marine ecosystem to human pressures and thus for detecting eutrophication. Here, we compute Chl trends over the Mediterranean Sea by using satellite data, also highlighting the fact that remote sensing may represent an efficient and reliable solution to synoptically control the “good environmental status” (i.e., the Marine Directive to achieve Good Environmental Status of EU marine waters by 2020) and to assess the application of international regulations and environmental directives. Our methodology includes the use of an ad hoc regional (i.e., Mediterranean) algorithm for Chl concentration retrieval, also accounting for the difference between offshore (i.e., Case I) and coastal (i.e., Case II) waters. We apply the Mann-Kendall test and the Sens’s method for trend estimation to the Chl concentration de-seasonalized monthly time series, as obtained from the X-11 technique. We also provide a preliminary analysis of some particular trends by evaluating their associated inter-annual variability. The high spatial resolution of our approach allows a clear identification of intense trends in those coastal waters that are affected by river outflows. We do not attempt to attribute the observed trends to specific anthropogenic events. However, the trends that we document are consistent with the findings of several previous studies.

Changes in the spawning habitat of two small pelagic fish in the Northwestern Mediterranean

“…The flow of the Rhone, for instance, was very high in the early 1980s, at its lowest in the first years of the 21st c. and increasing again in the current decade, while the Ebro River flow has been decreasing steadily for the past 4 decades (Cozzi, Ibáñez, Lazar, Raimbault, & Giani, ). The variations in river flow are accompanied in all cases by a decrease in the nutrient load (Cozzi et al, ), which might explain the observed decrease in chlorophyll a concentration in the Gulf of Lions and NE Spain in the last two decades (Colella, Falcini, Rinaldi, Sammartino, & Santoleri, ).…”

Reproduction of Spatio-Temporal Patterns of Major Mediterranean Phytoplankton Groups from Remote Sensing OC-CCI Data

“…These results suggest that our approach is highly suitable at basin scale and in selected sub-regions. This new dataset for PFT could be an efficient tool for recording and understanding the response of the marine ecosystem to human pressures and thus for detecting eutrophication in the Mediterranean Sea (Vantrepotte and Mélin, 2010;Colella et al, 2016).…”

Assessing the Impact of Temperature and Chlorophyll Variations on the Fluctuations of Sardine Abundance in Al-Hoceima (South Alboran Sea)

“…To stress and conform these findings we pursue a satellite trend analysis over the whole Alboran Sea, by applying the Mann-Kendall test and the Sens's method for trend estimation to the Chl concentration deseasonalized monthly time series, as obtained from the X-11 technique [52]. The analysis confirmed the negative Chl-a trend from 2011 to 2014, which follows a positive trend from 2003 to 2011 (Figure 9).…”