Ocean colour in the coastal zone

We will present ongoing work on the development of a module on coastal water quality that is being developed within the Science Education through Earth Observation for High Schools (EU-SEOS) project. The aim of this module is to get a profound insight in important functional aspects of the coastal zone by analyzing ocean colour images. Sensors like MERIS (ESA) and MODIS (NASA) on recently launched satellites are especially designed for the observations of coastal waters since they can cope with complex spectral signals. It is now possible to make maps showing the distribution of algal pigments, suspended material (including sediment), coloured dissolved organic mater (CDOM), transparency and solar photo-synthetically active radiation (PAR) available for phytoplankton growth.
In this module the students will experience that our European coastal waters are frequently observed from space and that relevant information is available on-line. The module will contribute significantly in understanding the coastal resources: coastal water quality is a complicated issue affected by a large number of parameters including human activities (river-run-off, fisheries) and numerous consumer products are produced in coastal areas. The present module will introduce the European directives on protection of the environment, the need for monitoring coastal waters in order to protect various activities (fishing, tourism, bathing and aquaculture) and the common policy on eutrophication. It focuses on:
1) Light and life: Students will start to understand the role of light in water. A link is made to growth, in particular the available light for algae and water plants to grow or for predators to hunt. The major sources for attenuation (suspended sediment in the near coastal zone and algae in the clearer waters) are presented. Transparency and attenuation will be presented and satellite based maps of these maps will be available. From these maps a link will be made to safety (for the Bathing Water Directive an underwater minimum visibility is required).
2) Ecosystems: Understanding and visualization of the human impact on the coastal eco-systems, in particular eutrophication. The impacts of eutrophication include: increased phytoplankton and macro-algae production and biomass. For the Dutch-German-Danish Wadden Sea and German Bight area the eutrophication and link to river input will be made explicit.
3) Health: Increase the capabilities to monitor the occurrence of harmful algae blooms in coastal waters and the potential risk for the quality of products such as fish and shellfish. Examples will be demonstrate that extensive blooms do occur now regularly in Spring, sometimes with negative effects on shellfish, human health or annoyance (foam on beaches).