Water quality observations are vital for effectively managing coastal resources and influencing decisions from emergency beach closures to aquaculture leasing agreements. This study focuses on deriving two water quality parameters—Chlorophyll a (Chl-a) and suspended particulate matter (SPM)—through the high-resolution multispectral imager (MSI) onboard the Sentinel 2A&B satellites, specifically for the Ningde coastal region, w...

Bio‐optical properties of marine phytoplankton retrieved through satellite remote sensing are used to estimate ocean productivity and carbon cycling. Daily activity of phytoplankton is attuned to the predictable light fluctuations of the diel cycle. Field and laboratory studies have documented diel changes in phytoplankton growth, division, and respiration, carbon and pigment content, cell size, photosynthetic efficiency and r...

Satellite observations have revolutionized ocean monitoring and analysis by providing a synoptic view of crucial marine environmental and biological data. By allowing planning of sampling locations based on observed biogeochemical patterns, satellite-based remote sensing data permit rapid and effective sampling of the full range of present conditions. Compared to traditional grid sampling, this technological advance has signif...

The proliferation of easily accessible machine learning algorithms and their apparent successes at inference and classification in computer vision and the sciences has motivated their increased adoption in ocean remote sensing. Our field, however, runs the risk of developing these models on limited training datasets—with sparse geographical and temporal sampling or ignoring the real data dimensionality—thereby constructing ove...

Biogeochemical- (BGC-) Argo aims to deploy and maintain a global array of autonomous profiling floats to monitor ocean biogeochemistry. With over 250,000 profiles collected so far, the BGC-Argo network is rapidly expanding toward the target of a sustained fleet of 1,000 floats. These floats prioritize the measurement of six key properties: oxygen, nitrate, pH, chlorophyll-a, suspended particles, and downwelling light. To asses...

In every liter of seawater there are between 10 and 100 billion life forms, mostly invisible, called marine plankton or marine microbiome, which form the largest and most dynamic ecosystem on our planet, at the heart of global ecological and economic processes. While physical and chemical parameters of planktonic ecosystems are fairly well measured and modeled at the planetary scale, biological data are still scarce due to the...

Phytoplankton play a major role on Earth, impacting the global distribution and cycles of carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and other elements, and structuring marine food webs. One fundamental trait of phytoplankton with direct biogeochemical implications is their size, as it governs metabolic and sinking rates as well as prey–predator interactions. Phytoplankton size spans approximately 3.5 orders of magnitude (when expresse...

Measuring plankton and associated variables as part of ocean time-series stations has the potential to revolutionize our understanding of ocean biology and ecology and their ties to ocean biogeochemistry. It will open temporal scales (e.g., resolving diel cycles) not typically sampled as a function of depth. In this review we motivate the addition of biological measurements to time-series sites by detailing science questions t...

Aquaculture of the eastern oyster, Crassostrea virginica , is an expanding industry in the US, particularly in the Gulf of Maine. High resolution ocean color satellites launched in the last decade potentially provide aquaculture-relevant water-quality parameters at farm scales. However, these parameters, such as temperature, suspended particulate matter (SPM), and Chlorophyll a (Chl a), need to be derived by interested users....

In this article, we present Bio-GO-SHIP, a new ocean observing program that will incorporate sustained and consistent global biological ocean observations into the Global Ocean Ship-based Hydrographic Investigations Program (GO-SHIP). The goal of Bio-GO-SHIP is to produce systematic and consistent biological observations during global ocean repeat hydrographic surveys, with a particular focus on the planktonic ecosystem. Ocean...

Data recorded by autonomous solar tracking systems onboard ships can be used to validate remote-sensing reflectance observations collected by satellite sensors. Important water quality parameters can also be derived from these data using inverse models. These systems require a mechanical setup that is interfaced with a computer to log radiometric data and to optimally adjust radiometer direction relative to the sun and the pla...

Aquatic ecologists face challenges in identifying the general rules of the functioning of ecosystems. A common framework, including freshwater, marine, benthic, and pelagic ecologists, is needed to bridge communication gaps and foster knowledge sharing. This framework should transcend local specificities and taxonomy in order to provide a common ground and shareable tools to address common scientific challenges. Here, we advoc...

This work presents an overview of a unique set of surface ocean dimethylsulfide (DMS) measurements from four shipboard field campaigns conducted during the North Atlantic Aerosol and Marine Ecosystem Study (NAAMES) project. Variations in surface seawater DMS are discussed in relation to biological and physical observations. Results are considered at a range of timescales (seasons to days) and spatial scales (regional to sub-me...

The ability to quantify spatio-temporal variability in phytoplankton growth and productivity is essential to improving our understanding of global carbon dynamics and trophic energy flow. Satellite-based observations offered the first opportunity to estimate depth-integrated net primary production (NPP) at a global scale, but early modeling approaches could not effectively address variability in algal physiology, particularly...