Bio‐optical properties and estimation of the optically active substances in Lake Tianmuhu in summer

Abstract

Bio‐optical properties in an optically complex and biologically productive region of Lake Tianmuhu were determined in three cruises from June to August 2006. The concentrations of three optically active substances, tripton C Tripton (calculated from total suspended matter and chlorophyll‐a (Chla) and phaeophytin‐a (Pa)), phytoplankton pigment C Chla+Pa , and chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) a CDOM(440), were predicted from the estimated irradiance reflectance based on in situ measurements and laboratory analyses. The total relative contributions of phytoplankton, tripton, CDOM and pure water over the range of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) (400–700 nm) were 36.1%, 24.2%, 15.9% and 23.8%, respectively. The dominant contribution of phytoplankton to the total absorption was due to high phytoplankton pigment concentration. The range and variation in irradiance reflectance and diffuse attenuation coefficient derived from a bio‐optical model, based on inherent optical properties, compared well with the measured variability. A reasonably strong relationship (R2 = 0.92) was observed between irradiance reflectance at 780 nm R(780) and C Tripton. For our data set, the best algorithm for C Chla+Pa used the three‐band reflectance model [R −1(688)−R −1(717)]×R(747). The a CDOM(440) could be estimated using the ratio of irradiance reflectance R(682)/R(555). The retrieval accuracy (R2) of tripton, phytoplankton pigment and CDOM was 0.92, 0.87 and 0.91, respectively, while the rms. error was 0.90 mg l−1 (18.2%), 3.27 µg l−1 (14.8%) and 0.073 m−1 (15.3%), respectively. Estimation of the concentrations of the three optically active substances was reasonably accurate based on inherent optical properties measurement.