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Trends in Chlorophyll-a Concentration Along the Krishna–Godavari Basin as Observed From MODIS Archives

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Abstract

The Krishna–Godavari basin (KG), located along the southeast coast of India, is a proven rich source of gas hydrates exploration zone. An understanding of surface water conditions in this region is necessary to study the coastal dynamics, and the implications of pollutants to the marine ecological environment. Here, we report the long-term trends and spatio-temporal variability in chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) in the KG basin, and discuss the dynamics of Chl-a patterns from 2002 to 2021. Monthly Chl-a averages from the Medium Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) were used for the analysis of trends and seasonal distributions by linear regression fitting. Our results revealed a downward trend in Chl-a concentrations, with a value of −0.000003 mg/m3 per month. A noticeable decreasing trend in the sediment load was also observed from the major rivers drained into the KG basin. The monthly runoff, precipitation, and wind fields were analysed to understand the Chl-a distribution patterns during the study period. We observed that runoff, precipitation, and wind forcing are the primary drivers controlling Chl-a distributions and dispersion patterns in the study area. The findings of this study contribute to a better understanding of the potential impacts of Chl-a to marine ecosystem, and provides new tools for assessing long-term trends in satellite-derived Chl-a concentrations in the prospective of climate change scenarios.

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Acknowledgements

We thank NASA Ocean Color for MODIS chlorophyll-a data. The river discharge is downloaded from the Water Resources Information System, India. We also thank NCEP/NCAR for providing the reanalysis wind field and precipitation. Chuqun Chen thanks the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. (U1901215) and Key Special Project for Introduced Talents Team of Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou) (GML2019ZD0305) for partial support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Marine Science and Technology, Zhejiang Ocean University, Zhoushan, 316022, China

    Sravanthi Nukapothula & Xiayan Lin

  2. State Key Laboratory of Tropical Oceanography, Guangdong Key Lab of Ocean Remote Sensing, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China

    Sravanthi Nukapothula & Chuqun Chen

  3. Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory, Guangzhou, 511458, China

    Chuqun Chen

  4. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali, Mohali, Punjab, 140 306, India

    Ali P. Yunus

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Nukapothula, S., Chen, C., Yunus, A.P. et al. Trends in Chlorophyll-a Concentration Along the Krishna–Godavari Basin as Observed From MODIS Archives. Pure Appl. Geophys. 179, 3827–3840 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-022-03141-6

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