Optical Properties of Ocean Water and Marine Primary Production -A Study on the Oligotrophic Zone in the Eastern Tropical Atlantic Ocean-

해수의 광학적 성질과 해양기초생산 -동열대 대서양 Oligotrophic zone을 중심으로-

Using the optical data from the EUMELI 3 and 4 missions, the optical properties are discussed in relation to primary production in the oligotrophic zone of the Eastern Atlantic Ocean. The depth of euphotic layer $(Z_{eu})$, the total accumulated concentration of pigment $(C_{TOT})$ and the concentration of pigment (C) are 88m, $12.4mgm^{-2}\;and\;0.14mgm^{-3}$, respectively for the EUMELI 3 mission and 101.7m, $10.0mgm^{-2}\;and\;0.10mgm^{-3}$, respectively for the EUMELI 4 mission. The concentration of pigment is higher in autumn (EUMELI 3) than in spring (EUMELI 4). This indicates that the concentration of photosynthetic pigment has a close correlation with vertical attenuation coefficient $(K(\lambda))$ that changes seasonally in the euphotic layer. While the spectral distributions of downward Irradiance$(E_d)$ for the wave length of 470nm increase with depth, those of upward irradiance $(E_u)$ for the wave length range between 410nm and 490nm are constant, because the study area is covered with the blue and clear oceanic deep waters. The vertical attenuation coefficients of downward irradiance $(K_d)$ and upward irradiance $(K_u)$ have low values between 0.02 and $0.06m^{-1}$ due to the low absorption and scattering by the photosynthetic pigment of phytoplankton. Therefore this zone has the characteristics of the case 1 waters with low concentrations of photosynthetic pigment, and can be classifed into IB.