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Abstract
Multi-source remote-sensing data were used to study the aftermath of the 2006 Lebanon oil spill: Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) 250 m data and advanced synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images were used to delineate the extent of the oil spill; QuikScat data were used to derive the wind field; and MODIS Ocean Colour data were used to demonstrate the variability of chlorophyll-a concentration (Chl-a) and sea surface temperature (SST). No significant changes were found in marine phytoplankton in the first few months after the oil spill. However, a big phytoplankton bloom was observed after 10 months, when Chl-a increased from 0.1 to 1.0 mg m–3. After considering the time-series variability of Chl-a and SST and the spatial variability of Chl-a and bathymetry, we concluded that this phytoplankton bloom was probably related to the Lebanon oil spill.
Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (40976091, 41106105 and 31061160190) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (kzcx2-yw-226). G. Pan was financially supported by the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, CAS (SQ200912), and the Key Laboratory of Marine Ecology and Environmental Science and Engineering, SOA (MESE-2009-04). The authors thank Prof. Jim Gower and two anonymous referees for their comments on the manuscript.
