'''DEFINITION''' We have derived an annual eutrophication and eutrophication indicator map for the North Atlantic Ocean using satellite-derived chlorophyll concentration. Using the satellite-derived chlorophyll products distributed in the regional North Atlantic CMEMS MY Ocean Colour dataset (OC- CCI), we derived P90 and P10 daily climatologies. The time period selected for the climatology was 1998-2017. For a given pixel, P90 and P10 were defined as dynamic thresholds such as 90% of the 1998-2017 chlorophyll values for that pixel were below the P90 value, and 10% of the chlorophyll values were below the P10 value. To minimise the effect of gaps in the data in the computation of these P90 and P10 climatological values, we imposed a threshold of 25% valid data for the daily climatology. For the 20-year 1998-2017 climatology this means that, for a given pixel and day of the year, at least 5 years must contain valid data for the resulting climatological value to be considered significant. Pixels where the minimum data requirements were met were not considered in further calculations. We compared every valid daily observation over 2021 with the corresponding daily climatology on a pixel-by-pixel basis, to determine if values were above the P90 threshold, below the P10 threshold or within the [P10, P90] range. Values above the P90 threshold or below the P10 were flagged as anomalous. The number of anomalous and total valid observations were stored during this process. We then calculated the percentage of valid anomalous observations (above/below the P90/P10 thresholds) for each pixel, to create percentile anomaly maps in terms of % days per year. Finally, we derived an annual indicator map for eutrophication levels: if 25% of the valid observations for a given pixel and year were above the P90 threshold, the pixel was flagged as eutrophic. Similarly, if 25% of the observations for a given pixel were below the P10 threshold, the pixel was flagged as oligotrophic. '''CONTEXT''' Eutrophication is the process by which an excess of nutrients – mainly phosphorus and nitrogen – in a water body leads to increased growth of plant material in an aquatic body. Anthropogenic activities, such as farming, agriculture, aquaculture and industry, are the main source of nutrient input in problem areas (Jickells, 1998; Schindler, 2006; Galloway et al., 2008). Eutrophication is an issue particularly in coastal regions and areas with restricted water flow, such as lakes and rivers (Howarth and Marino, 2006; Smith, 2003). The impact of eutrophication on aquatic ecosystems is well known: nutrient availability boosts plant growth – particularly algal blooms – resulting in a decrease in water quality (Anderson et al., 2002; Howarth et al.; 2000). This can, in turn, cause death by hypoxia of aquatic organisms (Breitburg et al., 2018), ultimately driving changes in community composition (Van Meerssche et al., 2019). Eutrophication has also been linked to changes in the pH (Cai et al., 2011, Wallace et al. 2014) and depletion of inorganic carbon in the aquatic environment (Balmer and Downing, 2011). Oligotrophication is the opposite of eutrophication, where reduction in some limiting resource leads to a decrease in photosynthesis by aquatic plants, reducing the capacity of the ecosystem to sustain the higher organisms in it. Eutrophication is one of the more long-lasting water quality problems in Europe (OSPAR ICG-EUT, 2017), and is on the forefront of most European Directives on water-protection. Efforts to reduce anthropogenically-induced pollution resulted in the implementation of the Water Framework Directive (WFD) in 2000. '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' The coastal and shelf waters, especially between 30 and 400N that showed active oligotrophication flags for 2020 have reduced in 2021 and a reversal to eutrophic flags can be seen in places. Again, the eutrophication index is positive only for a small number of coastal locations just north of 40oN in 2021, however south of 40oN there has been a significant increase in eutrophic flags, particularly around the Azores. In general, the 2021 indicator map showed an increase in oligotrophic areas in the Northern Atlantic and an increase in eutrophic areas in the Southern Atlantic. The Third Integrated Report on the Eutrophication Status of the OSPAR Maritime Area (OSPAR ICG-EUT, 2017) reported an improvement from 2008 to 2017 in eutrophication status across offshore and outer coastal waters of the Greater North Sea, with a decrease in the size of coastal problem areas in Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Norway and the United Kingdom. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00195

'''DEFINITION''' Oligotrophic subtropical gyres are regions of the ocean with low levels of nutrients required for phytoplankton growth and low levels of surface chlorophyll-a whose concentration can be quantified through satellite observations. The gyre boundary has been defined using a threshold value of 0.15 mg m-3 chlorophyll for the Atlantic gyres (Aiken et al. 2016), and 0.07 mg m-3 for the Pacific gyres (Polovina et al. 2008). The area inside the gyres for each month is computed using monthly chlorophyll data from which the monthly climatology is subtracted to compute anomalies. A gap filling algorithm has been utilized to account for missing data inside the gyre. Trends in the area anomaly are then calculated for the entire study period (September 1997 to December 2021). '''CONTEXT''' Oligotrophic gyres of the oceans have been referred to as ocean deserts (Polovina et al. 2008). They are vast, covering approximately 50% of the Earth’s surface (Aiken et al. 2016). Despite low productivity, these regions contribute significantly to global productivity due to their immense size (McClain et al. 2004). Even modest changes in their size can have large impacts on a variety of global biogeochemical cycles and on trends in chlorophyll (Signorini et al 2015). Based on satellite data, Polovina et al. (2008) showed that the areas of subtropical gyres were expanding. The Ocean State Report (Sathyendranath et al. 2018) showed that the trends had reversed in the Pacific for the time segment from January 2007 to December 2016. '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' The trend in the South Altantic gyre area for the 1997 Sept – 2021 December period was positive, with a 0.01% increase in area relative to 2000-01-01 values. Note that this trend is lower than the 0.09% rate for the 1997-2020 trend (though within the uncertainties associated with the two estimates) and is not statistically significant (p>0.05). During the 1997 Sept – 2021 December period, the trend in chlorophyll concentration was positive (0.73% year-1) relative to 2000-01-01 values. This is a significant increase from the trend of 0.35% year-1 for the 1997-2020 period and is statistically significant (p<0.05). The last two years of the timeseries show an increased deviation from the mean. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00228

'''DEFINITION''' Oligotrophic subtropical gyres are regions of the ocean with low levels of nutrients required for phytoplankton growth and low levels of surface chlorophyll-a whose concentration can be quantified through satellite observations. The gyre boundary has been defined using a threshold value of 0.15 mg m-3 chlorophyll for the Atlantic gyres (Aiken et al. 2016), and 0.07 mg m-3 for the Pacific gyres (Polovina et al. 2008). The area inside the gyres for each month is computed using monthly chlorophyll data from which the monthly climatology is subtracted to compute anomalies. A gap filling algorithm has been utilized to account for missing data. Trends in the area anomaly are then calculated for the entire study period (September 1997 to December 2021). '''CONTEXT''' Oligotrophic gyres of the oceans have been referred to as ocean deserts (Polovina et al. 2008). They are vast, covering approximately 50% of the Earth’s surface (Aiken et al. 2016). Despite low productivity, these regions contribute significantly to global productivity due to their immense size (McClain et al. 2004). Even modest changes in their size can have large impacts on a variety of global biogeochemical cycles and on trends in chlorophyll (Signorini et al. 2015). Based on satellite data, Polovina et al. (2008) showed that the areas of subtropical gyres were expanding. The Ocean State Report (Sathyendranath et al. 2018) showed that the trends had reversed in the Pacific for the time segment from January 2007 to December 2016. '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' The trend in the North Atlantic gyre area for the 1997 Sept – 2021 December period was positive, with a 0.14% year-1 increase in area relative to 2000-01-01 values. This trend has decreased compared with the 1997-2019 trend of 0.39%, and is no longer statistically significant (p>0.05). During the 1997 Sept – 2021 December period, the trend in chlorophyll concentration was negative (-0.21% year-1) inside the North Atlantic gyre relative to 2000-01-01 values. This is a slightly lower rate of change compared with the -0.24% trend for the 1997-2020 period but is still statistically significant (p<0.05). '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00226

'''DEFINITION''' Oligotrophic subtropical gyres are regions of the ocean with low levels of nutrients required for phytoplankton growth and low levels of surface chlorophyll-a whose concentration can be quantified through satellite observations. The gyre boundary has been defined using a threshold value of 0.15 mg m-3 chlorophyll for the Atlantic gyres (Aiken et al. 2016), and 0.07 mg m-3 for the Pacific gyres (Polovina et al. 2008). The area inside the gyres for each month is computed using monthly chlorophyll data from which the monthly climatology is subtracted to compute anomalies. A gap filling algorithm has been utilized to account for missing data inside the gyre. Trends in the area anomaly are then calculated for the entire study period (September 1997 to December 2021). '''CONTEXT''' Oligotrophic gyres of the oceans have been referred to as ocean deserts (Polovina et al. 2008). They are vast, covering approximately 50% of the Earth’s surface (Aiken et al. 2016). Despite low productivity, these regions contribute significantly to global productivity due to their immense size (McClain et al. 2004). Even modest changes in their size can have large impacts on a variety of global biogeochemical cycles and on trends in chlorophyll (Signorini et al 2015). Based on satellite data, Polovina et al. (2008) showed that the areas of subtropical gyres were expanding. The Ocean State Report (Sathyendranath et al. 2018) showed that the trends had reversed in the Pacific for the time segment from January 2007 to December 2016. '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' The trend in the North Pacific gyre area for the 1997 Sept – 2021 December period was positive, with a 1.75% increase in area relative to 2000-01-01 values. Note that this trend is lower than the 2.17% reported for the 1997-2020 period. The trend is statistically significant (p<0.05). During the 1997 Sept – 2021 December period, the trend in chlorophyll concentration was negative (-0.26% year-1) in the North Pacific gyre relative to 2000-01-01 values. This trend is slightly less negative than the trend of -0.31% year-1 for the 1997-2020 period, though the sign of the trend remains unchanged and is statistically significant (p<0.05). It must be noted that the difference is small and within the uncertainty of the calculations, indicating that the trend is significant, however there may be no change associated with the timeseries extension. For 2016, The Ocean State Report (Sathyendranath et al. 2018) reported a large increase in gyre area in the Pacific Ocean (both North and South Pacific gyres), probably linked with the 2016 ENSO event which saw large decreases in chlorophyll in the Pacific Ocean. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00227

'''DEFINITION''' The time series are derived from the regional chlorophyll reprocessed (REP) products as distributed by CMEMS which, in turn, result from the application of the regional chlorophyll algorithms over remote sensing reflectances (Rrs) provided by the ESA Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative (ESA OC-CCI, Sathyendranath et al. 2019; Jackson 2020). Daily regional mean values are calculated by performing the average (weighted by pixel area) over the region of interest. A fixed annual cycle is extracted from the original signal, using the Census-I method as described in Vantrepotte et al. (2009). The deseasonalised time series is derived by subtracting the mean seasonal cycle from the original time series, and then fitted to a linear regression to, finally, obtain the linear trend. '''CONTEXT''' Phytoplankton – and chlorophyll concentration as a proxy for phytoplankton – respond rapidly to changes in environmental conditions, such as temperature, light and nutrients availability, and mixing. The response in the North Atlantic ranges from cyclical to decadal oscillations (Henson et al., 2009); it is therefore of critical importance to monitor chlorophyll concentration at multiple temporal and spatial scales, in order to be able to separate potential long-term climate signals from natural variability in the short term. In particular, phytoplankton in the North Atlantic are known to respond to climate variability associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO), with the initiation of the spring bloom showing a nominal correlation with sea surface temperature and the NAO index (Zhai et al., 2013). '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' While the overall trend average for the 1997-2021 period in the North Atlantic Ocean is slightly positive (0.16 ± 0.12 % per year), an underlying low frequency harmonic signal can be seen in the deseasonalised data. The annual average for the region in 2021 is 0.25 mg m-3. Though no appreciable changes in the timing of the spring and autumn blooms have been observed during 2021, a lower peak chlorophyll concentration is observed in the timeseries extension. This decrease in peak concentration with respect to the previous year is contributing to the reduction trend. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00194

'''DEFINITION''' Oligotrophic subtropical gyres are regions of the ocean with low levels of nutrients required for phytoplankton growth and low levels of surface chlorophyll-a whose concentration can be quantified through satellite observations. The gyre boundary has been defined using a threshold value of 0.15 mg m-3 chlorophyll for the Atlantic gyres (Aiken et al. 2016), and 0.07 mg m-3 for the Pacific gyres (Polovina et al. 2008). The area inside the gyres for each month is computed using monthly chlorophyll data from which the monthly climatology is subtracted to compute anomalies. A gap filling algorithm has been utilized to account for missing data. Trends in the area anomaly are then calculated for the entire study period (September 1997 to December 2021). '''CONTEXT''' Oligotrophic gyres of the oceans have been referred to as ocean deserts (Polovina et al. 2008). They are vast, covering approximately 50% of the Earth’s surface (Aiken et al. 2016). Despite low productivity, these regions contribute significantly to global productivity due to their immense size (McClain et al. 2004). Even modest changes in their size can have large impacts on a variety of global biogeochemical cycles and on trends in chlorophyll (Signorini et al 2015). Based on satellite data, Polovina et al. (2008) showed that the areas of subtropical gyres were expanding. The Ocean State Report (Sathyendranath et al. 2018) showed that the trends had reversed in the Pacific for the time segment from January 2007 to December 2016. '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' The trend in the South Pacific gyre area for the 1997 Sept – 2021 December period was positive, with a 0.04% increase in area relative to 2000-01-01 values. Note that this trend is lower than the 0.16% change for the 1997-2020 period, with the sign of the trend remaining unchanged and is not statistically significant (p<0.05). An underlying low frequency signal is observed with a period of approximately a decade. During the 1997 Sept – 2021 December period, the trend in chlorophyll concentration was positive (0.66% year-1) in the South Pacific gyre relative to 2000-01-01 values. This rate has increased compared to the rate of 0.45% year-1 for the 1997-2020 period and remains statistically significant (p<0.05). In the last two years of the timeseries, an increase in the variation from the mean is observed. For 2016, the Ocean State Report (Sathyendranath et al. 2018) reported a large increase in gyre area in the Pacific Ocean (both North and South Pacific gyres), probably linked with the 2016 ENSO event which saw large decreases in chlorophyll in the Pacific Ocean. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00229

'''DEFINITION''' The trend map is derived from version 5 of the global climate-quality chlorophyll time series produced by the ESA Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative (ESA OC-CCI, Sathyendranath et al. 2019; Jackson 2020) and distributed by CMEMS. The trend detection method is based on the Census-I algorithm as described by Vantrepotte et al. (2009), where the time series is decomposed as a fixed seasonal cycle plus a linear trend component plus a residual component. The linear trend is expressed in % year -1, and its level of significance (p) calculated using a t-test. Only significant trends (p < 0.05) are included. '''CONTEXT''' Phytoplankton are key actors in the carbon cycle and, as such, recognised as an Essential Climate Variable (ECV). Chlorophyll concentration is the most widely used measure of the concentration of phytoplankton present in the ocean. Drivers for chlorophyll variability range from small-scale seasonal cycles to long-term climate oscillations and, most importantly, anthropogenic climate change. Due to such diverse factors, the detection of climate signals requires a long-term time series of consistent, well-calibrated, climate-quality data record. Furthermore, chlorophyll analysis also demands the use of robust statistical temporal decomposition techniques, in order to separate the long-term signal from the seasonal component of the time series. '''CMEMS KEY FINDINGS''' The average global trend for the 1997-2021 period was 0.51% per year, with a maximum value of 25% per year and a minimum value of -6.1% per year. Positive trends are pronounced in the high latitudes of both northern and southern hemispheres. The significant increases in chlorophyll reported in 2016-2017 (Sathyendranath et al., 2018b) for the Atlantic and Pacific oceans at high latitudes appear to be plateauing after the 2021 extension. The negative trends shown in equatorial waters in 2020 appear to be remain consistent in 2021. '''DOI (product):''' https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00230