Predictive Bio-Optical Relationships for Polar Oceans and Marginal Ice Zones

摘要

Optical properties of the oceans are of fundamental interest for alloceanographic disciplines. Their variability is largely determined by variations in the ecology of the system; biological response to the physical and chemical environment results in more than three orders of magnitude variability in the concentration of phytoplankton. The horizontal and vertical distribution of attenuating particles, such as phytoplankton and biogenic detrital material, affects the way in which heat is stored in the upper ocean, providing a fundamental link between optical properties of the ocean and physical oceanography. The phytoplankton, through photosynthesis, can directly affect the distribution of major and trace nutrients.