Year: 2026
Type: article
Abstract: Monitoring phytoplankton from space can help detect shifts in marine ecosystems, particularly under accelerating climate change. However, most existing ocean-colour chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) algorithms are empirical in nature, and do not explicitly consider any potential optical effects of shifts in phytoplankton community composition independent of a change in Chl-a. Similar ocean-colour signals may arise from different combinations of Chl-a and phytoplankton community composition. Revealing how phytoplankton are responding to environmental change using satellite data requires tackling this ambiguity. In previous work, we developed an Ocean Colour Modelling Framework (OCMF) to simulate ocean colour for varying Chl-a and phytoplankton size classes (PSCs). Here, we invert the OCMF to directly retrieve Chl-a, key inherent optical properties (IOPs), and PSCs, from satellite remote sensing reflectance and sea surface temperature (SST), accounting for deviations in non-algal particles (NAP) and coloured dissolved organic matter (CDOM) from assumed open ocean relationships with Chl-a. The model is validated using a global in situ dataset and shows stable performance across diverse oceanic conditions. Integrating ecological concepts into a bio-optical model may advance our ability to interpret long-term changes in phytoplankton community structure from space.
Source: Frontiers in Remote Sensing
Institutions: University of Exeter, Plymouth Marine Laboratory, National Centre for Earth Observation, National Institute of Oceanography and Applied Geophysics, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Curtin University, Sorbonne Université, Institut de la Mer de Villefranche, Bayworld Centre for Research and Education, Alfred-Wegener-Institut Helmholtz-Zentrum für Polar- und Meeresforschung, University of Bremen, Université Mohammed VI Polytechnique, Istituto di Scienze Marine del Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, National Research Council, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, State Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, East China Normal University
Language: English
Subfield: Oceanography
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $3,077
Award: G6798252201
OpenAlex ID: W7125961828