Fluctuations of satellite-derived chlorophyll concentrations and optical indices at the Southern Yellow Sea
Résumé
Time series of chlorophyll-a concentration (chla),backscattering coefficient at 490 nm (bbp (490)) and spectral slope of b bp (γ) derived from satellite imagery of ocean color were used to study the aquaticecosystem of the Southern Yellow Sea during the time period of 1997-2007. Our study indicated that chl a increased in offshore waters by 0.02 mg m−3y−1(p<0.05), in contrast to a decline observed in the middleandlow-latitudeglobalwaters.bbp (490),aproxyoftotalsuspendedparticulatematterconcentrationdidnot have any significant trend, while γ, a proxy of the relative proportion of small-sized and larger particles in the surface ocean, decreased significantly. Annual spring phytoplankton blooms occurred in nearshore and offshorewatersofthecentralSouthernYellowSea;whileautumnbloomsonlyoccurredinnearshorewaters.