Retrieval of phytoplankton pigments and functional types from underway
spectrophotometry in the Fram Strait
Abstract
Gaussian decomposition and Singular Value Decomposition combined with
Non-Negative Least Squares (SVD-NNLS) method are compared and combined
to estimate the concentration of 18 phytoplankton pigments (names and
abbreviations are displayed in Table 2) from phytoplankton absorption
spectra. Results show that both methods tend to overestimate pigment
concentration. Gaussian decomposition method provides robust estimation
of TChl-a, TChl-b, Chl-c1/2, PSC and PPC. The estimates of TChl-a, Fuco,
Diato, $\beta$-Caro, Prasino, TChl-b, Zea, Viola and
Lut from SVD-NNLS show reasonable estimation accuracy, while the other
pigments are subjected to relatively large prediction errors. The
estimated pigments concentrations are further exploited based on
Diagnostic Pigment Analysis to derive four phytoplankton functional
types, i.e. diatoms, prymnesiophytes, green algae and prokaryotes. By
the application of these two methods to the particulate absorption
spectra collected by underway spectrophotometry during three summer
cruises in 2015 - 2017 in the Fram Strait, continuous surface
phytoplankton functional types are estimated along the cruise course.