Spatiotemporal variability in bio-optical characteristics of the southwestern tropical Indian Ocean during boreal summer: Biophysical influences

The bio-optical characteristics of the surface ocean play a pivotal role in radiative transfer and photosynthetic carbon fixation. To examine spatiotemporal variability of bio-optical properties in the tropical Indian Ocean, a 10-day time-series comparative study was made at one fixed and 3 variable stations in the southwestern tropical Indian Ocean (SWTIO), and 4-stations in the Equatorial Indian Ocean (EIO) during June 2014. A total of 24 hyperspectral radiometer profiles were collected along with physicochemical parameters and phytoplankton pigments analysis. A negative sea level anomaly (SLA), higher precipitation, a more stable mixed layer, and higher buoyancy frequency (N²) were observed in SWTIO compared to EIO. The deep chlorophyll maxima (DCM) in SWTIO were characterised by deep biomass maxima (DBM) whereas in the EIO it was due to deep photoacclimation maxima (DAM). The photosynthetically available radiation (PAR) profiles were obtained by integrating downwelling irradiance from 400 to 700 nm suggesting that the SWTIO had a greater abundance of optically active substances (OAS) than the EIO. Surface chlorophyll a (Chl-a) was found to have significant relationships with phytoplankton absorption coefficient (aₚₕ(443)). Chl-a-specific phytoplankton absorption coefficients (a*ₚₕ(443)), total absorption coefficient (aₜ(443)), and particulate backscattering (bbₚ(555)) were also related to Chl-a implying that the phytoplankton was in growth/active phase. The time-series variability of the phytoplankton and changes in the photosynthetic pigments (PSP) to photoprotective pigments (PPP) ratio at SWTIO suggested phytoplankton community shift during 5ᵗʰ to 7ᵗʰ days. Microplankton percent-abundances showed distinct linear relationships with Chl-a and bbₚ(555) implying that carbon fixation per unit Chl-a was higher in microplankton than in nano and picoplankton at SWTIO. The in situ Chl-a, aₚₕ(443), adg(443), Kd(490) and C¯ₚd were used to validate the various empirical algorithms available as well as the satellite-retrieved data. The MODIS and VIIRS data correlated moderately. This study would help towards improving regional optimized algorithms for OAS and provide a baseline understanding of the scale of variability of primary production and carbon flux from space. In addition, this would contribute valuable bio-optical data from an under-sampled geographical area.