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Satellite Retrieved Spatio-temporal Variability of Phytoplankton Size Classes in the Arabian Sea

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Abstract

The long-term trend in satellite retrieved phytoplankton size classes (PSC) such as picophytoplankton (PP), nanophytoplankton (NP), and microphytoplankton (MP) was studied in the three zones falling under different ecological provinces in open ocean regions of the Arabian Sea. A regionally tuned three-component “abundance” model was used to compute PSC biomass from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer onboard Aqua (MODISA) satellite data for the period of 17 years (2003 to 2019). The overall trend indicated the highest concentration of all PSC in the northern Arabian Sea (ARAB province) which gradually decreased to the southern region (MONS province). All PSC biomass showed a peak during the winter monsoon period in ARAB province attributed to the recurring algal bloom. The long-term temporal trend showed relatively lower concentration (most of the times < 0.1 mg m−3) of all PSC biomass in MONS in comparison with ARAB. However, the monthly climatology of total phytoplankton biomass exhibited a similar pattern in all the provinces. The temporal distribution of the PSC biomass discerned rank order of MP > PP > NP in ARAB. In contrast, MONS displayed PSC rank order as PP > NP > MP. A sharp decline in the concentration of MP biomass was observed during the onset of summer monsoon period in comparison with other PSC in MONS.

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Acknowledgement

Authors are thankful to the authorities of Centurion University of Technology & Management, Bhubaneswar and Director, Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad for their support and encouragement. The authors acknowledge NASA-OBPG for making available MODIS-Aqua data on OceanColor Web. The authors are also thankful to the development team of SeaDAS software using which the satellite data was processed. This work is an outcome of International Training Centre for Operational Oceanography (ITCOocean) training course on “Ocean Color Remote Sensing-Data, Processing and Analysis" conducted during November 25–29, 2019. This is INCOIS contribution no. 386.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centurion University of Technology and Management, Bhubaneswar, 752050, India

    Kamal Kumar Barik & Amit Kumar Jena

  2. Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India, Hyderabad, 500090, India

    Sanjiba Kumar Baliarsingh, Suchismita Srichandan, Alakes Samanta & Aneesh Anandrao Lotliker

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  1. Kamal Kumar Barik
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  2. Sanjiba Kumar Baliarsingh
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  3. Amit Kumar Jena
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  4. Suchismita Srichandan
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  6. Aneesh Anandrao Lotliker
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Correspondence to Aneesh Anandrao Lotliker.

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Barik, K.K., Baliarsingh, S.K., Jena, A.K. et al. Satellite Retrieved Spatio-temporal Variability of Phytoplankton Size Classes in the Arabian Sea. J Indian Soc Remote Sens 48, 1413–1419 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12524-020-01165-w

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