Environmental optics, remote sensing and phytoplankton ecology

水的光学遥感为观察和研究海洋和湖泊提供了极其有用的工具。要做到这一点，必须基于对这些敏感环境的基本物理和生物学的理解，准确地解释卫星测量。这需要开发基于对生态系统功能的深入理解的精确算法。我的长期愿景是确保不同的测量--远程和现场、生物学和物理学--得到正确的解释，并被引入(吸收)到描述水生系统如何运作和应对人类影响的高级模型中。虽然今天这主要是通过物理变量来完成的，但生物学方面才刚刚开始在同化模型中使用，因为它们的解释更复杂。 我的实验室一直在努力实现这一长期目标，通过对不同关键系统变量的一系列研究，可以对水生系统有一个新的理解：太阳诱导荧光提供关于浮游植物生理学的信息，而体积散射函数提供关于水中存在的所有微小生物和非生物颗粒的信息。通过在反演建模过程中取得快速进展，我们将展示它们的开创性潜力，以帮助我们更好地了解水生系统如何在大范围内发挥作用。 目前的建议有三个主要的短期目标：1)更好地查明海洋中体积散射函数和太阳诱导的荧光的变异性来源，以便改进现场和遥感观测；2)利用卫星推进湖泊的大规模遥感，以便监测和研究湖泊随时间的变化及人类影响的程度；3)通过评估湖泊分水岭内的活动和气候变化如何改变湖泊的功能，提高我们对人类对加拿大各地湖泊现在和未来影响的了解。 这些短期目标将通过培训几名学生和博士后来实现，他们将从我的研究计划中非常多样化的活动中受益匪浅，发展巨大的科学广度和技能，以推进最先进的方法，并回答关键的当代科学问题。此外，他们还将参与国际合作努力，这些努力是通过NSERC发现计划之前的赠款而发展起来的。

Optical remote sensing of water provides an extremely useful tool to observe and study oceans and lakes. To do this, satellite measurements must be accurately interpreted based on an understanding of the underlying physics and biology of these sensitive environments. This requires the development of precise algorithms grounded in a deep understanding of ecosystem functioning. My long-term vision is to ensure that disparate measurements - remote and in situ, biology and physics - are correctly interpreted and fed (assimilated) into advanced models that describe how aquatic systems function and respond to human impacts. While today this is done mostly with physical variables, biological aspects are only starting to be used in assimilation models because their interpretation is more complex. My lab has been working towards this long-term goal through a series of studies on different key system variables that could unlock a new understanding of aquatic systems: Sun-induced fluorescence provides information on phytoplankton physiology while the volume scattering function provides information on all small living and non-living particles present in water. By making rapid advances in inversion modelling procedures, we will show their groundbreaking potential to help us understand better how aquatic systems function at large scales. The present proposal has three main short-term objectives: 1) better identify the sources of variability in the volume scattering function and Sun-induced fluorescence in the ocean to allow improved in situ and remote sensing observations; 2) Advance large-scale remote sensing of lakes using satellites to allow monitoring and the study of changes in lakes over time and the extent of human impacts; 3) Improve our understanding of the human impacts on lakes across Canada now and into the future by assessing how the activities within a lake's watershed together with climate change can modify lake functioning. Theses short-term objectives will be achieved by training several students and postdocs who will strongly benefit from the very diverse activities in my research program, develop great scientific breadth and skills to advance state-of-the-art methods, and answer key contemporary scientific questions. They will furthermore be participating in international collaborative efforts that have grown through previous grants from the NSERC Discovery program.