Application of a data-interpolating variational analysis (DIVA) tool to physical and biogeochemical measurements covering the Black Sea

Abstract

peer reviewedThe European project SESAME (Southern European Seas: Assessing and Modelling Ecosystem changes) is dedicated to the assessment of ecological changes in the Mediterranean and Black seas during these last decades. This assessment will be done by combining statistical analysis of available data and the development of a 3D hydrodynamical-biogeochemical model. Data available since 1960 for the Black Sea from the databases MEDAR and NATO have been completed with data provided by SESAME partners. These data sets have been analyzed using DIVA, a geostatistical analysis tool developed by the GHER laboratory of the University of Liège. The DIVA analysis relies on a finite element resolution, taking into account coastlines, sub-basins, and advection by ocean currents. DIVA analysis generates spatially interpolated fields for biogeochemical and physical variables. Outputs consist in sets of analysis as well as error fields, and colorimetric scaled maps related to several depth layers. Biogeochemical variables considered consist in measures of chlorophyll, inorganic nutrients concentration, and phytoplankton abundances; physical variables consist in temperature and salinity. These treatments of the Black sea data sets offer an overview of the global pattern of the Black sea biogeochemical structure, and its evolution through the time periods concerned by the project. The interpolated fields generated by the DIVA tool will be used to validate the outputs of the 3D hydrodynamical-biogeochemical model developed for the north-western shelf of the Black sea in the framework of SESAME