What color is YOUR water? Monitoring the Coastal Ocean Through Color
Anna R. McGaraghan*, Kendra Negrey, and Raphael M. Kudela University of California Santa Cruz *[email protected]
What is Ocean Color? What do the colors mean?
Ocean color as measured from satellite is a When the water looks especially green, it means there are a prominent tool in modern oceanography. lot of microscopic algae (phytoplankton) growing near the Satellite sensors record reflected light from the surface. surface of the water. Different colors represent how light interacts with different par cles in the water. When the water looks murky and brown it means there is sediment, or mud, suspended in the water.
Our eyes can do the same thing! People have been observing and recording the color of the water from the shore for centuries. Changing colors reflect the changing par cles in the water. Phytoplankton blooms o en turn the water green, but a dense bloom of certain species can be orange, brown or red.
Colors below all from Monterey Bay!
How is ocean color measured here? Why does it ma er?
In Monterey Bay, the water color is recorded each week in Monterey and Santa Monitoring the changing color of water can help researchers recognize pa erns in Cruz while researchers are collec ng phytoplankton samples. the state of the ocean. Pa erns can hold the keys to understanding phenomena like red des and harmful algal blooms, weather events, and climate change. This color chart is used, and the color is recorded along with several other water quality measurements. Red des, o en harmless, are Harmful Algal Blooms are not. They are easy to see. (Can you spot the o en colorless – but subtle changes in whale?) color can reveal changes in the phytoplankton community.
Lingulodinium bloom (HAB) Pseudo-nitzschia bloom (HAB)
Santa Cruz 15 April 2015 #UCSCcolorgallery Akashiwo bloom (harmless)
Weekly colors at the Santa Cruz Wharf in 2014
Shi from diatoms to dinoflagellates
Diatoms + turbidity + rain Highest domoic acid Cochlodinium
Join us! Santa Cruz High Tech: Two smartphone apps are available that gather water color Low Tech: informa on from all over the world. Water color exhibits can be found at the Santa Cruz Wharf and HydroColor Citclops Download either the Exploratorium in San Francisco. Take a photo and app and submit contribute to our Instagram gallery! water color photos from anywhere! Exploratorium
Photos posted to the gallery allow us to compare Monterey Bay and San Francisco Bay, and observe Scan code at right for color chart and more info, or visit how the colors change through me. h p://oceandatacenter.ucsc.edu/PhytoBlog/color.html