The effect of cyclone on the ocean primary productivity in Bay of Bengal

The understanding about ocean primary productivity is very important as it is a key component of the Earth’s biogeochemical carbon cycles, as well as in predicting the response of marine biota to possible changes in radiative or other physical forcing because of global warming (Wang et al., 2009). Chlorophyll-a has been known as the most important indicator for ocean productivity estimation (Nagamani et al., 2011). Many studies have been conducted to determine the variation of chlorophyll-a concentration due to several factors such as cyclone (Tripathy et al., 2012). This study focuses on examining the effect of various cyclone events on the ocean primary productivity in Bay of Bengal (BOB). BOB is the largest bay in the world with unique semi-enclosed tropical basin, monsoon variation, and experienced high rainfall and frequent cyclone (Reddy et al., 2008). Tripathy et al., 2012 had found the frequent occurrence of cyclonic events causes shortterm nutrient enrichment of upper-stratified ocean resulting in enhanced biological productivity. Upwelling and entrainment processes due to strong winds associated with cyclone will bring up nutrients and causes phytoplankton bloom (Reddy et al., 2008). Chlorophyll concentration is increased under the cyclone track and the blooms of phytoplankton were covered wide area (Smitha et al., 2006)

Monitoring spatial and temporal variation of ocean productivity in the Bay of Bengal using remote sensing

Ocean productivity plays an important role in the global carbon cycle, climate change and food supply. An alarming issue about the ocean productivity is that it is decreasing gradually in most world biomes where the decreasing rate in certain oceans, such as in the Bay of Bengal is higher as compared to other oceans. Although historically the Bay of Bengal is less productive as compared to the other oceans, there are large number of population living along the coastal areas depend on food supply from this bay. Therefore, productivity of the Bay of Bengal is very crucial and this study investigates the trend of ocean productivity by monitoring the long term variation of Chlorophyll-a concentration, and its relationships with sea surface temperature, precipitation and ocean current. Several steps of processing were adopted, which includes i) estimate the spatial and temporal variation of all parameters, ii) examine the variation of all parameters along the five selected transects from coastal to offshore area, iii) perform change detection of all parameters, and iv) investigate relationships between Chlorophyll-a and all other parameters. Results indicated several aspects, such as i) ocean productivity in the Bay of Bengal varies spatially and seasonally, ii) during northeast monsoon, Chlorophyll-a concentration in the western part of the bay is remarkably high but low in other parts particularly in the middle part of the bay, iii) during southwest monsoon, the observed Chlorophyll-a concentration is high in the south-western and north-western part of the bay, whereas the middle part of the bay maintains low productive, iv) anomaly of Chlorophyll-a concentration is high (1 to 2.5 mg/m³) in coastal area and very low (less than 0.5 mg/m3) in the offshore area, v) low Chlorophyll-a area (0-0.10 mg/m³) fluctuates highly from year to year, while very less fluctuation observed in high Chlorophyll-a concentrated area (1-6.5 mg/m³), vi) sea surface temperature and precipitation are normally higher during southwest monsoon as compared to northeast monsoon, and vii) strong ocean current was observed in western part of bay during both seasons. As conclusion, this study highlights the potential of remote sensing technique in monitoring ocean productivity, and identified that the productivity of the Bay of Bengal is changing with no constant rate of change from year to year. The rate of change depends on several factors including temperature, precipitation, ocean current, and location

Monitoring long-term ocean health using remote sensing: A case study of the Bay of Bengal

Oceans play a significant role in the global carbon cycle and climate change, and the most importantly it is a reservoir for plenty of protein supply, and at the center of many economic activities. Ocean health is important and can be monitored by observing different parameters, but the main element is the phytoplankton concentration (chlorophyll-a concentration) because it is the indicator of ocean productivity. Many methods can be used to estimate chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentration, among them, remote sensing technique is one of the most suitable methods for monitoring the ocean health locally, regionally and globally with very high temporal resolution. In this research, long term ocean health monitoring was carried out at the Bay of Bengal considering three facts i.e. i) very dynamic local weather (monsoon), ii) large number of population in the vicinity of the Bay of Bengal, and iii) the frequent natural calamities (cyclone and flooding) in and around the Bay of Bengal. Data (ten years: from 2001 to 2010) from SeaWiFS and MODIS were used. Monthly Chl-a concentration was estimated from the SeaWiFS data using OC4 algorithm, and the monthly sea surface temperature was obtained from the MODIS sea surface temperature (SST) data. Information about cyclones and floods were obtained from the necessary sources and in-situ Chl-a data was collected from the published research papers for the validation of Chl-a from the OC4 algorithm. Systematic random sampling was used to select 70 locations all over the Bay of Bengal for extracting data from the monthly Chl-a and SST maps. Finally the relationships between different aspects i.e. i) Chl-a and SST, ii) Chl-a and monsoon, iii) Chl-a and cyclones, and iv) Chl-a and floods were investigated monthly, yearly and for long term (i.e 10 years). Results indicate that SST, monsoon, cyclone, and flooding can affect Chl-a concentration but the effect of monsoon, cyclone, and flooding is temporal, and normally reduces over time. However, the effect of SST on Chl-a concentration can't be minimized very quickly although the change of temperature over this period is not very large.Remote Sensing of the Ocean, Sea Ice, Coastal Waters, and Large Water Regions 2013 (24 September 2013, Dresden, Germany

From government funding to crowdfunding: identifying approaches and models for universities

Malaysian public universities are bracing for funding cuts and moving towards autonomous status causing them to be more innovative in generating income. Crowdfunding has been part of the solutions. Unfortunately, the emerging of university crowdfunding platforms in Malaysia is relatively slow as compared to the universities in the U.K. and U.S. This study aims to explore approaches and crowdfunding models used by the universities. This study highlights different approaches used by the universities in incorporating crowdfunding into their funding strategies, which can be differentiated into two main groups, namely setting up a university-operated crowdfunding platform and using existing third-party platforms. The investigation on the Skolafund crowdfunding shows that it could be an example of which the crowdfunding model fits Malaysian universities. The findings in this paper can help the universities to ease the burden due to the budget cut impact by utilising crowdfunding

Ocean primary productivity variation due to the cyclone: a case study at Bay of Bengal

Monitoring ocean primary productivity especially Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentration is important as it contributes to the carbon cycle, global climate change and ocean health study. This study aims to examine the effects of cyclone events on the ocean productivity in the Bay of Bengal (BOB) considering its importance on global climate change. Level 2 SeaWiFS daily data from 2001 to 2010 were used to determine Chl-a concentration and data from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) were used to get information and locations of the cyclone events. Variation of Chl-a concentration was determined from the Chl-a concentration maps (pre-, during, and post-cyclone) using several transect lines parallel to the cyclone passages. Results indicated that there is a relationship between the variation of Chl-a concentration and the cyclone events at the BOB but the effect is varied according to the type of cyclone where very severe cyclonic storm (VSCS) has higher impact on Chl-a concentration compared to cyclonic storm (CS) and severe cyclonic storm (SCS). In most cases, Chl-a concentration was increased right after the cyclone event and the influence was observed over a wide area surrounding the cyclone passage.Monitoring ocean primary productivity especially Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentration is important as it contributes to the carbon cycle, global climate change and ocean health study. This study aims to examine the effects of cyclone events on the ocean productivity in the Bay of Bengal (BOB) considering its importance on global climate change. Level 2 SeaWiFS daily data from 2001 to 2010 were used to determine Chl-a concentration and data from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) were used to get information and locations of the cyclone events. Variation of Chl-a concentration was determined from the Chl-a concentration maps (pre-, during, and post-cyclone) using several transect lines parallel to the cyclone passages. Results indicated that there is a relationship between the variation of Chl-a concentration and the cyclone events at the BOB but the effect is varied according to the type of cyclone where very severe cyclonic storm (VSCS) has higher impact on Chl-a concentration compared to cyclonic storm (CS) and severe cyclonic storm (SCS). In most cases, Chl-a concentration was increased right after the cyclone event and the influence was observed over a wide area surrounding the cyclone passage.Monitoring ocean primary productivity especially Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) concentration is important as it contributes to the carbon cycle, global climate change and ocean health study. This study aims to examine the effects of cyclone events on the ocean productivity in the Bay of Bengal (BOB) considering its importance on global climate change. Level 2 SeaWiFS daily data from 2001 to 2010 were used to determine Chl-a concentration and data from the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) were used to get information and locations of the cyclone events. Variation of Chl-a concentration was determined from the Chl-a concentration maps (pre-, during, and post-cyclone) using several transect lines parallel to the cyclone passages. Results indicated that there is a relationship between the variation of Chl-a concentration and the cyclone events at the BOB but the effect is varied according to the type of cyclone where very severe cyclonic storm (VSCS) has higher impact on Chl-a concentration compared to cyclonic storm (CS) and severe cyclonic storm (SCS). In most cases, Chl-a concentration was increased right after the cyclone event and the influence was observed over a wide area surrounding the cyclone passag

Monitoring the effect of seasonal variation on the ocean productivity: a case study in the bay of Bengal

The productivity of the ocean is crucial and can be represented by several oceanic parameters. However, the major indicator for ocean productivity monitoring is phytoplankton (Chlorophyll-a) concentration. The productivity of the ocean is now decreasing due to several factors and the rate of declination is even higher in some part of the ocean such as in the Bay of Bengal. Therefore, long-term monitoring of ocean productivity is important, thus the primary goal of this study is to monitor the changes in ocean productivity in the Bay of Bengal due to the seasonal variation. The observation was made based on two seasons i.e. northeast monsoon (November to February) and southwest monsoon (May to September) over a long-term period. The ten-year (from 2001 to 2010) products of Chlorophyll-a concentration from SeaWiFS were used to analyze the spatial and temporal analysis of ocean productivity at the Bay of Bengal. The finding of this study indicates a long-term variation of ocean productivity at the Bay of Bengal for different seasons. It is found that Chlorophyll-a concentration started to increase in the month of October/November and decreased after January, and this trend of Chlorophyll-a concentration change remains the same for over the past ten years. However, no constant rate of change of Chlorophyll-a concentration from year to year has been observed in this study. This study also observed that ocean productivity is highly varied in the Northwestern region of the Bay of Bengal during the northeast monsoon as compared to other regions. In contrary, ocean productivity was found high at Northeastern part of the Bay during the southwest monsoon period. The probable reason for this variation is the monsoon wind that blows in certain directions (e.g. from Southwestern part to Northeastern during southwest) which reduces the water surface temperature, resulting in an increased productivity