Ocean Colour for the Determination of Water Column Biological Processes

Project Information

BIOCOLOR

Grant agreement ID: MAS3970085

Project closed

Start date 1 September 1997

End date 30 June 2000

Funded under

• Specific programme of research and technological development in the field of marine science and technology, 1994-1998

Total cost No data

EU contribution No data

Coordinated by

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, GALWAY
Ireland

Objective

The overall objective of this proposal is to identify patterns in phytoplankton succession through measurements of ocean colour. Thus the role of transients in the physical environment, caused by the seasonal solar heating cycle and other dynamic processes, in modifying phytoplankton community structure (succession) will be investigated in two contrasting shelf seas.
Initially field measurements will be carried out to relate physical processes to phytoplankton succession. This will include the deployment of new optical technology in conjunction with standard optical instrumentation to yield high spectral resolution data on the apparent and inherent optical properties of the water column. In addition we will relate in situ ocean colour data to that measured remotely by satellite and airborne based sensors.
Predictive models will be developed which will allow the interpretation of remotely sensed ocean colour information. Validated models will be used in an inversion procedure to recover the water constituent (phytoplankton pigment) concentrations from the reflectance or remotely sensed water leaving radiance. The measurements made in the field experiments will then be used to validate the success of the inversion process.
At the end of the project, a light model will have been developed which will facilitate the interpretation of ocean colour data and allow a greater detail in monitoring of phytoplankton behaviour than has been possible to date. Ultimately this will allow an enhanced understanding of the interaction between physical processes and phytoplankton ecology within the oceans, and will have particular relevance to European coastal and shelf seas through the facility of monitoring potentially harmful algal blooms.

Fields of science

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.

• engineering and technology › materials engineering › colors
• engineering and technology › mechanical engineering › vehicle engineering › aerospace engineering › satellite technology
• natural sciences › biological sciences › ecology
• engineering and technology › electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering › electronic engineering › sensors

Programme(s)

• FP4-MAST 3 - Specific programme of research and technological development in the field of marine science and technology, 1994-1998

Topic(s)

• 010102 - Practical and theoretical integrated ecosystem studies to model and define the resilience of pelagic and benthic ecosystems of marginal seas and ocean basins

Call for proposal

Data not available

Funding Scheme

CSC - Cost-sharing contracts

Coordinator

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF IRELAND, GALWAY

• EU contribution: No data
• Address: NUI, Galway ; 90 GALWAY ; Ireland
• Total cost: No data

Participants (3)

INSTITUTE OF OCEANOLOGY POLISH ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

Poland

• EU contribution: No data
• Address: 55,Powstancow Warszawy 55 ; 81-712 SOPOT
• Total cost: No data

Southampton Institute

United Kingdom

• EU contribution: No data
• Address: East Park Terrace ; SO14 0YN Southampton
• Total cost: No data

University of Southampton

United Kingdom

• EU contribution: No data
• Address: European Way ; SO14 3ZH Southampton
• Total cost: No data