Brewin Robert J W, Dall'Olmo Giorgio
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Centre for Geography and Environmental Science, University of Exeter, Penryn, Cornwall, TR10 9FE, UK.
Department of Oceanography, Istituto Nazionale di Oceanografia e Geofisica Sperimentale - OGS, Borgo Grotta Gigante 42/c, 34010 Sgonico, Trieste, Italy.
J Plankton Res. 2024 Jun 7;46(4):380-382. doi: 10.1093/plankt/fbae027. eCollection 2024 Jul-Aug.
Phytoplankton turn seawater green when their concentration increases. This allows us to monitor them using ocean colour. However, as the spectral properties of phytoplankton and their relationship with other coloured substances in seawater vary, subtle differences (anomalies) in ocean colour occur that can cause large errors in estimates of phytoplankton abundance. Identifying and understanding these anomalies is required to interpret ocean-colour data properly, but not all scientists have access to, or can afford, the instrumentation needed to do this. We show that practical, low-cost tools developed in the 19th century (a Secchi disk and Forel-Ule colour scale) can be used to quantify a colour anomaly in the Weddell Sea. Our findings imply that ocean-colour anomalies can be identified using affordable methods. Furthermore, records collected over the last century may contain clues on how ocean ecosystems have changed with climate.
当浮游植物的浓度增加时，海水会变绿。这使我们能够利用海洋颜色来监测它们。然而，由于浮游植物的光谱特性及其与海水中其他有色物质的关系各不相同，海洋颜色会出现细微差异（异常），这可能导致浮游植物丰度估计出现较大误差。要正确解读海洋颜色数据，就需要识别并理解这些异常，但并非所有科学家都能获得或负担得起进行此项工作所需的仪器设备。我们表明，19世纪开发的实用低成本工具（塞氏盘和福尔-于勒色标）可用于量化威德尔海的颜色异常。我们的研究结果表明，可以使用经济实惠的方法识别海洋颜色异常。此外，过去一个世纪收集的记录可能包含有关海洋生态系统如何随气候而变化的线索。
