B1654
Title: Sustainable development goals in marine biology: Using spectral analysis and cross-correlation to describe Chlorophyll-a
Authors: Helena Mourino - FCiencias.ID-Associacao para a Investigacao e Desenvolvimento de Ciencias (Portugal) [presenting]
Abstract: Phytoplankton are microscopic marine algae that are the basis of the marine food chain. They contain the pigment chlorophyll-a, which gives them a greenish colour. Based on this characteristic, an idea about the quantity of phytoplankton in the visible light region of the ocean is formed. Monitoring chlorophyll-a level is a simple and cost-effective way to track phytoplankton biomass. Phytoplankton play an essential role in the marine ecosystem as the reduction of phytoplankton concentration might indicate climate change due to a lack of nutrients from the deep ocean due to changes in the upper ocean currents and stability. Chlorophyll-a's seasonal and interannual variability was studied between 2008 and 2016 in two Portuguese coastal bays. Moreover, it examines how different meteorological and oceanographic (MetOc) variables can explain the differences observed in the seasonal cycles. The periodic structure of the weekly time series on chlorophyll-a was carried out based on Fourier Analysis. Cross-correlation analyses are performed at different time lags to study the correlation between chlorophyll-a and the MetOc variables. To evaluate the significance of the correlation coefficients, simultaneous confidence intervals were computed based on Bartlett's Theorem.
