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Ocean Colour Remote Sensing of Harmful Algal Blooms in the Benguela System

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Abstract

The Benguela, as a highly productive upwelling system, suffers from the occurrence of a variety of harmful algal blooms, most of which are associated with elevated biomass; a feature common to the shelf environment of upwelling systems. Most harmful blooms have in the past been attributed to one or another dinoflagellate species, but more recently harmful impacts have also been ascribed to other groups of phytoplankton, including diatom and autotrophic ciliate species. Typical bloom assemblages, forcing mechanisms and harmful impacts are outlined, and bloom types most amenable to detection with ocean colour radiometry are identified. Inherent and apparent optical properties of these algal assemblage types are described, and a preliminary evaluation is made of the suitability of available ocean colour data and algorithms. The evolution of several bloom events is described using various algorithms applied to ocean colour data from the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS), and recommendations are made about optimal ocean colour usage for high biomass algal blooms in coastal zones.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Natural Resources and Ecosystems, Cape Town, South Africa

    Stewart Bernard

  2. Department of Oceanography, University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Stewart Bernard, Hayley Evers-King, Lisl Robertson, Mark Matthews & Andy Rabagliati

  3. Fisheries Research and Development, Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Cape Town, South Africa

    Grant Pitcher

  4. Graduate School of Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Narragansett, RI, USA

    Christelle Balt

  5. Also at: University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa

    Mark Matthews

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  1. Stewart Bernard
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  2. Grant Pitcher
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  3. Hayley Evers-King
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  4. Lisl Robertson
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  7. Christelle Balt
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Correspondence to Stewart Bernard .

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  1. TP272, Joint Research Centre European Commission, Ispra, Italy

    Vittorio Barale

  2. Institut für Meereskunde, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Martin Gade

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Bernard, S. et al. (2014). Ocean Colour Remote Sensing of Harmful Algal Blooms in the Benguela System. In: Barale, V., Gade, M. (eds) Remote Sensing of the African Seas. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-8008-7_10

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