Water Turbidity and Suspended Particulate Matter Concentration at Dredged Material Dumping Sites in the Southern Baltic.

Dredged material dumping is an activity that causes some of the greatest changes in coastal waters. It results in the need to regularly monitor the properties of seawater related to water quality. In this study, we present the first wide-ranging attempt to correlate seawater turbidity and suspended particulate matter (SPM) concentrations within dumping sites and adjacent waters on the basis of in situ measurements. In the years 2019-2020, we examined four dumping sites, namely Darlowo, Gdynia, Gdansk, and DCT, located in Polish coastal waters of the Baltic Sea, in the course of four measurement campaigns conducted in the spring, summer, autumn, and winter. The measurements were conducted using a turbidity sensor to determine the turbidity, in formazin turbidity units (FTU), a spectrophotometer to determine the concentrations of nutrients (total phosphorus (P-tot), phosphate phosphorus (P-PO4-3), total nitrogen (N-tot), ammonium nitrogen (N-NH4+), and nitrate nitrogen (N-NO3-)), as well as glass microfiber filters to determine the concentrations of SPM. The analysis of the relationship between the turbidity and SPM within the dumping sites in comparison to reference points showed that the dumping sites are very complex waters and that the issue must be approached locally. The highest turbidity values were registered in the spring, and they correlated linearly with the SPM concentrations (R2 = 0.69). Moreover, we performed a statistical cluster analysis to illustrate the similarities between sampling points in the four dumpsites based on nutrient concentrations. We conclude that the influence of the dumping sites on the local bio-optical and chemical properties significantly exceeds their borders and spreads to the adjacent waters. Nutrient concentrations in many cases exceeded the legal policy limits.

Remote Sensing of Dispersed Oil Pollution in the Ocean-The Role of Chlorophyll Concentration.

In the contrary to surface oil slicks, dispersed oil pollution is not yet detected or monitored on regular basis. The possible range of changes of the local optical properties of seawater caused by the occurrence of dispersed oil, as well as the dependencies of changes on various physical and environmental factors, can be estimated using simulation techniques. Two models were combined to examine the influence of oceanic water type on the visibility of dispersed oil: the Monte Carlo radiative transfer model and the Lorenz-Mie model for spherical oil droplets suspended in seawater. Remote sensing reflectance, Rrs, was compared for natural ocean water models representing oligotrophic, mesotrophic and eutrophic environments (characterized by chlorophyll-a concentrations of 0.1, 1 and 10 mg/m3, respectively) and polluted by three different kinds of oils: biodiesel, lubricant oil and crude oil. We found out that dispersed oil usually increases Rrs values for all types of seawater, with the highest effect for the oligotrophic ocean. In the clearest studied waters, the absolute values of Rrs increased 2-6 times after simulated dispersed oil pollution, while Rrs band ratios routinely applied in bio-optical models decreased up to 80%. The color index, CI, was nearly double reduced by dispersed biodiesel BD and lubricant oil CL, but more than doubled by crude oil FL.

The effect of dispersed Petrobaltic oil droplet size on photosynthetically active radiation in marine environment.

Oil pollution in seawater, primarily visible on sea surface, becomes dispersed as an effect of wave mixing as well as chemical dispersant treatment, and forms spherical oil droplets. In this study, we examined the influence of oil droplet size of highly dispersed Petrobaltic crude on the underwater visible light flux and the inherent optical properties (IOPs) of seawater, including absorption, scattering, backscattering and attenuation coefficients. On the basis of measured data and Mie theory, we calculated the IOPs of dispersed Petrobaltic crude oil in constant concentration, but different log-normal size distributions. We also performed a radiative transfer analysis, in order to evaluate the influence on the downwelling irradiance Ed, remote sensing reflectance Rrs and diffuse reflectance R, using in situ data from the Baltic Sea. We found that during dispersion, there occurs a boundary size distribution characterized by a peak diameter d0 = 0.3 µm causing a maximum E d increase of 40% within 0.5-m depth, and the maximum Ed decrease of 100% at depths below 5 m. Moreover, we showed that the impact of size distribution on the "blue to green" ratios of Rrs and R varies from 24% increase to 27% decrease at the same crude oil concentration.

Laboratory measurements of light beam depolarization on turbulent convective flow.

Laboratory measurements of light beam depolarization by a turbulent flow, corresponding to oceanic turbulence within the oceanic mixed layer, show that the depolarization rate (1x10(-5)?m(-1) to 3x10(-3)?m(-1)) correlates with turbulence strength and is consistent with polarized lidar observations [Opt. Express, 16, 1196 (2008)OPEXFF1094-408710.1364/OE.16.001196]. These results imply that one should be able to characterize oceanic turbulence with polarimetric oceanic lidar measurements.

Improved method of Fournier-Forand marine phase function parameterization.

Volume scattering functions (VSFs) and other optical seawater parameters were measured during a cruise in the Southern Baltic. Phase functions (PFs) calculated from VSFs were compared with Fournier-Forand phase functions parameterized with backscattering ratios. Due to significant divergences between experimental and modeled data a new method of Fournier-Forand phase function parameterization is proposed.