CMEMS Primary production from satellite remote sensing: spatial and temporal evolution and comparison with other products

Half of the global primary production is produced in the ocean by phytoplankton and the reaction of photosynthesis. For the marine environment, primary production is at the basis for the food web, by the supply of energy for higher trophic levels. Monitor primary production appears therefore to be a guideline to reach sustainable fisheries. In addition to its role on the trophic web, primary production is also important for its role on CO₂ fluxes. Indeed, while phytoplankton creates matter from nutrients and CO₂. The produced matter can be grazed by higher trophic levels or sink towards sediment. Amount of carbon sequestrated and exported out of the productive layer give some clues efficiencies of the oceanic biological carbon pump. Primary production is therefore important not only for economic resources, but also for climatic studies, to investigate if the ocean is a carbon sink or sources.

A strategy of algorithm validation / inter-comparison was used as part as the CMEMS project to identify most accurate primary production algorithm among the most used in the literature.

Primary production validation is based on the commonly used comparison with in situ data, as well as the frequency and the intensity of the annual bloom in different basin. Inter-comparison with model were performed at the basin scale of the Mediterranean Sea to assess the robustness and the consistency of different type of estimates.

Satellite estimate of primary production, as proposed by CMEMS, give now access to an archive of 21 years for user community, to investigate evolution of primary production at the global scale or in specific basin.