Temporal and spatial variations in the Sea of Marmara based on monthly averages of chlorophyll a, which is the major indicator of phytoplankton biomass and primary production, recorded by SeaWiFS and MODIS-Aqua sensors at nearly 100 stations have been analyzed for the period of 1997-2007. Majority of phytoplankton blooms occur during the winter and spring seasons, followed by a smaller secondary bloom during the fall season. The majority of high magnitude blooms occur at the Eastern part of the Sea which may be attributed to an increase in the amount of discharge of water contaminated with nutrients originating on land where the industries are located.
The correlations between monthly averages of sea surface temperature (SST) and corresponding chlorophyll a values are statistically significant (inverse) at 1% level, where r= -0.53 and the equation of the fitted model is:
Chlorophyll a = 7.09199 &ndash / 0.215402* SST
This correlation is expected because a relative decrease in SST is an indicative of upwelling and vertical mixing which are the primary processes for the formation of phytoplankton blooms.
We have also found that monthly averages of chlorophyll a recorded by SeaWiFS and MODIS-Aqua are nearly identical and either data set can be used in place of the other.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:METU/oai:etd.lib.metu.edu.tr:http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/3/12608976/index.pdf |
| Date | 01 December 2007 |
| Creators | Ikis, Didem |
| Contributors | Bilgin, Can |
| Publisher | METU |
| Source Sets | Middle East Technical Univ. |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | M.S. Thesis |
| Format | text/pdf |
| Rights | To liberate the content for public access |
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