engleski

Changes of remotely sensed pigments and transparency in the Adriatic Sea

Remotely sensed pigments in the Adriatic Sea and transparency were studied from remotely sensed color and from in-situ Secchi-disk data for the last few decades. In the northern Adriatic and especially in the coastal zones, the trends of pigment concentrations and transparency can be attributed to the anthropogenic influences of these highly populated areas. In addition to trends, pigment concentrations and transparency in the Adriatic Sea also show fluctuations. The Adriatic open sea waters are exposed to periodically stronger influences of advected Levantine intermediate water (LIW) through the Otranto Strait. This water is carrying into the oligotrophic southern Adriatic more nutrients and higher salinity. However, the intrusions of LIW are controlled via Mediterranean oscillation index (MOI), which is strongly connected to the wider scale index: the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Exceptional cases of increased open sea pigment concentrations in the southern Adriatic seems to be strongly related to the wind conditions, causing upwelling of deep southern waters, and this seems to be early spring phenomenon, only. On the other side, extreme winter pigments concentrations in the Northern Adriatic are connected to the wind mixing of the shallow bottom sediments, rather than increased productivity. Both indexes, as indicators of climatic changes, already proved influential in the Adriatic were put in correlation to transparency and via it connected to the trends and fluctuations in the ecosystem.

Adriatic Sea; transparency; ocean color

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