Spatiotemporal Expansion of Algal Blooms in Coastal China Seas.

The coastal seas of China are increasingly threatened by algal blooms, yet their comprehensive spatiotemporal mapping and understanding of underlying drivers remain challenging due to high turbidity and heterogeneous water conditions. We developed a singular value decomposition-based algorithm to map these blooms using two decades of MODIS-Aqua satellite data, spanning from 2003 to 2022. Our findings indicate significant algal activity along the Chinese coastline, impacting an average annual area of approximately 1.

Remotely sensing harmful algal blooms in the Red Sea.

Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) are of global concern, as their presence is often associated with socio-economic and environmental issues including impacts on public health, aquaculture and fisheries. Therefore, monitoring the occurrence and succession of HABs is fundamental for managing coastal regions around the world. Yet, due to the lack of adequate in situ measurements, the detection of HABs in coastal marine ecosystems remains challenging.