Spatial-temporal bio-optics and ocean colour remote sensing of coastal waters of British Columbia

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Coastal oceans are highly dynamic and of great biogeochemical, ecological, and economic importance. Economically, coastal oceans concentrate marine resources that are increasingly in demand, thus requiring increasing monitoring and managing of these regions. To succeed in these tasks, approaches that provide information at various time and spatial scales are needed, which must involve a degree of both continuous and sustained data collection. One temporally and spatially dynamic coastal system under strong influence of terrestrial and oceanic inputs is the coastal waters of British Columbia (BC).****My goal is to determine the spatial-temporal dynamics of BC coastal waters using bio-optics and remote sensing to test hypotheses on spatial and time domain fluctuations in the spring phytoplankton bloom phenology (timing, duration, and amplitude) and on occurrence of harmful algae blooms. To address this goal, three objectives were defined as part of this five years proposal. In the first objective I will assess the spatial-temporal bio-optical variability of the waters of the Salish Sea, Queen Charlotte Sound-Hecate Strait, and the west coast of Vancouver Island aiming to improve algorithms based on ocean colour satellites to retrieve biogeochemical variables (2002 to present), and test hypothesis on spatial and time domain variability of phytoplankton bloom phenology and environmental forcing. Second objective aims to define optimized approaches to obtain continuous above-water in situ reflectance from unattended radiometers in moving ferries crossing the Strait of Georgia. The radiometers are part of a recently awarded project Ferry Ocean Colour Observation Systems (FOCOS). This objective will enable the development of regional reflectance based algorithms to retrieve biogeochemical properties of the water and to validate atmospheric correction of ocean colour imagery. As part of the third objective, I will develop reflectance based models to define harmful algae blooms (HABs) to assess hypothesis of spatial and time domain variability in the waters of the Salish Sea and west coast of Vancouver Island and provide an early warning HABs detection method for the aquaculture industry. As part of these objectives, the HQP will be trained in the "nuts and bolts" of science, from using cutting-edge technology to analyzing long-time series of data to address oceanographic and resource management questions.****Phytoplankton bloom variability and occurrence of HABs in the BC coastal waters are suggested to contribute to the large variability in the salmon populations return in the past 50 years. HABs are also the principal killer of farmed salmon in BC coastal waters. The proposed research will enable HQP and I to make important contributions to environmental challenges facing Canada such as, the sustainability of the aquaculture industry and other fisheries management issues.**