5 years of plankton monitoring in Southampton Water and the Solent including FerryBox, Dock Monitor and discrete sample data

摘要

The Environment Agency (EA) has to make a eutrophication status assessment of the Solentudand its harbours every four years. This requires a review of the frequency and magnitude ofudphytoplankton blooms. To assist with this process SOC has prepared this report to provide aud"meta-data base" describing the relevant data sets collected by SOC between 1999 and 2003. Itudprovides details of :- (1) methods used to collect the data (2) errors associated with the methodsud(3) calibration and quality control procedures used (4) changes in procedures (5) references toudtechnical reports and theses containing detailed descriptions of the methods used. Changes inudconcentrations of chlorophyll in relation to concentrations of nutrients at SOC study sites inudSouthampton Water are plotted in graphs. The occurrence of bloom events and processes ofudbloom limitation are described. In particular observations of the variation of chlorophylludconcentrations made using the FerryBox route between Town Quay Southampton and CowesudIsle of Wight are described and the development of the systems and associated problems areuddetailed. The information is presented as (i) graphs of the whole data set at all locations againstudtime for each year (ii) 3D maps of the variation in concentrations with location and time (iii)udtime series for single locations along the FerryBox track.