Variación temporal y espacial de la temperatura superficial del mar y la clorofila-a satelital en el sector central de la costa de la Provincia del Chubut (44ºS-45º30’S) (ARGENTINA)
Oral presentation at SELPER Symposium. Puerto Iguazú, Argentina. 7 – 11 November 2016.
Spatio-temporal surface patterns of sea surface temperature (SST) and clorophyll-a (chl-a) along the central coastal area of Chubut province (44ºS-45º30’S) were characterized, using a time series (2005-2014) of MODIS daily images with 1.1 km spatial resolution. This sector is considered of great importance for the conservation of a great diversity of marine species and it is part of the Biosphere Reserve “Patagonia Azul”, recognized by the UNESCO in 2015. It is characterized by the interaction of tides with the bottom, the irregularities of the coast and the isles, which causes eddies and areas of great turbulence, mainly near Cabo Dos Bahías and Punta Tombo. Satellite images were used to generate monthly, seasonal and climatological average maps, for both SST and chl-a. Then, a seasonal model was applied to the complete series in order to study the behavior of these variables over time. Since SST and chl-a have different dynamics, a separate model was applied to each of them, so different parameters were obtained for each variable (mean, amplitude and phase). In this study an exploratory analyses on twelve points distributed along the whole study area have been performed in order to characterize the SST and chl-a cycles identifying areas where chlorophyll had uni or bi-modal cycles along the year. These results are explained based on the particular characteristics of each sector.