PHYTOCLIMA - Remote sensing of phytoplankton variability patterns off South-Western Iberia: a sentinel for climate change?
Ref.: PTDC/AAC-CLI/114512/2009
Budget (Total/UALG-CIMA): 134.800,00€ / 132.880,00€
Starting date: Januray 1st, 2011
Ending date: December 31st, 2013
Coordinator: Ana Barbosa
Main domain: Environment and Climate Change
Abstract:Growing concerns on the effects of anthropogenic and global climate changes, linked to the pivotal roles of phytoplankton and their value as highly sensitive ecological indicators, make the study of phytoplankton regulation a key determinant to detect and forecast ecosystem responses to environmental changes (Platt & Sathyendranath 2008; Smetacek & Cloern 2008). Recent studies evidence that climatic variability is impacting marine phytoplankton but its effects on different ecosystems are difficult to predict since they depend on phytoplankton controls and ecosystem properties (Cloern & Dufford 2005). The identification of dominant environmental drivers of phytoplankton requires high-resolution long-time data series, such as those derived from satellite imagery (Platt et al. 2009). The South-Western Iberian Peninsula is an interesting area to study interactions between phytoplankton and climate change since it is classified as very vulnerable to climate change (IPCC 2007). Moreover, climate driven oceanographic alterations over recent decades, namely a sea surface warming and an increased summer upwelling intensity, were reported for the region (Relvas et al. 2009).