Coastal Education & Research Foundation, Inc.

Remote Sensing of Spatial-Temporal Variation of Chlorophyll-a in the Jiaozhou Bay Using

32 Years Landsat Data
Author(s): Ming Wu, Yongfang Zhao, Li’e Sun, Jue Huang, Xiaohua Wang and Yue Ma
Source: Journal of Coastal Research , FALL 2020, SPECIAL ISSUE NO. 102. Advances in
Geospatial Research of Coastal Environments (FALL 2020), pp. 271-279
Published by: Coastal Education & Research Foundation, Inc.

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/48639244

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 Journal of Coastal Research SI 102 271-279 Coconut Creek, Florida 2020

Remote Sensing of Spatial-Temporal Variation of Chlorophyll-a in

the Jiaozhou Bay Using 32 Years Landsat Data
Ming Wu†, Yongfang Zhao††, Li’e Sun§, Jue Huang†*, Xiaohua Wang§§,‡, and Yue Ma§§,‡,‡‡

§
†
College of Geodesy and Geomatics Jiao Zhou Bay Marine Ecosystem
††
Qindao Ecological and Environmental
Shandong University of Science and Research Station Monitoring Centre of Shandong Province
Technology Chinese Academy of Sciences Qingdao, China www.cerf-jcr.org
Qingdao, China Qingdao, China
‡‡School
§§
School of Science ‡SinoAustralian Research Centre of Electronic Information
University of New South Wales for Coastal Management Wuhan University
Canberra, Australia University of New South Wales Wuhan, China
Canberra, Australia

ABSTRACT

Wu, M.; Zhao, Y.F.; Sun, L.E.; Huang, J.; Wang, X.H., and Ma, Y., 2020. Remote sensing of spatial-temporal variation
of chlorophyll-a in the Jiaozhou Bay using 32 years Landsat data. In: Jung, H.-S.; Lee, S.; Ryu, J.-H., and Cui, T.W.
(eds.), Advances in Geospatial Research of Coastal Environments. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 102,
pp. 271-279. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208.

www.JCRonline.org The chlorophyll-a concentration (Chla, μg/L) is a vital indicator of water quality and eutrophication, yet optical
complexity and significant variability of coastal waters make the accurate estimation of Chla challenging. Monitoring
spatial-temporal distribution and variation of Chla and comprehending the correlation between Chla and environmental
factors are necessary for long-term water quality assessment. This study calibrated and validated the Chla estimation
model with satisfactory performance (R2, RMSE, and MRE values are 0.77, 0.64 μg/L, and 32.5 %) and further
characterized the spatial-temporal variation of Chla in Jiaozhou Bay (JZB) based on 381 cloud-free Landsat images of
32 years (1986-2017). The annual mean Chla in JZB reached the highest value in 1997 and decreased gradually in the
following two decades. The seasonal variation of Chla is obvious: the highest value of Chla appeared in summer,
followed by spring, autumn and winter. Accordingly, the monthly averaged Chla peaked in July, while the minimum
occurred in January. The spatial distribution of Chla on different time scales shared a similar pattern. High Chla
appeared in the northwestern part of JZB and decreased gradually to the southwest, resulting in the lowest Chla near
the water channel connected to the open sea. The spatial heterogeneity mainly arose from river discharge, while the
temporal heterogeneity may be caused by seasonal variations in precipitation, temperature, and river discharge. This
study indicated that the empirical models for the Landsat data could effectively monitor the long-term Chla variation
in JZB.

ADDITIONAL INDEX WORDS: Chlorophyll-a, ocean color, remote sensing, chlorophyll, Jiaozhou bay.

INTRODUCTION
Jiaozhou Bay (JZB) is located on the southern coast of
Shandong Province, China (Figure 1), which is a semi-enclosed
bay and connected to the Yellow Sea with a narrow mouth in the
south (Huang et al., 2019). It is 31 km long from north to south
and 22 km wide from east to west, with an area of 343.09 km2 (Li
et al., 2014). The water depth of JZB is 7 m on average, with a
middle channel depth of 64 m (Li et al., 2014). Due to its narrow
entrance, deep channel, low turbidity, weak tides, and low waves,
JZB serves as a natural harbor and promote the transportation
industries of Qingdao City (Yang et al., 2019). However, like
most bays adjacent to the urbanized area, the coastal area of JZB
has been altered greatly to solve contradiction between supply
and demand of land. According to previous studies, the area of
JZB is 36.6 % smaller than that in 1935 and the length of the
____________________
DOI: 10.2112/SI102-033.1 received 12 June 2020; accepted in
revision 27 October 2020.
*Corresponding author: huangjue@sdust.edu.cn
©
Coastal Education and Research Foundation, Inc. 2020
coastline has declined by 30.4 % (Gao et al., 2017; Yuan et al.,
2019).
The annual average suspended solids concentration of rivers
around Jiaozhou Bay is 0.1~2.5 kg/m3 (Sheng et al., 2014), while
the Dagu River is the main discharge channel, with sediment
discharge of about 9.6×105 ton/yr. As one of the crucial indicators
to imply water quality conditions and biogeochemical status, Chla
has been an issue of vital concern to scientists and administrators.
Sun et al., (2011) studied the seasonal and annual variation of
Chla and primary productivity in the JZB between 1984 and 2008
with filed measured data. Wang et al., (2015) analyzed the
spatiotemporal pattern of Chla and its influence factors with in
situ data between 2010 and 2011 in JZB. However, the use of a
limited number of measurements through traditional point
sampling could only reveal accurate information for specific sites
but cannot reflect the overall spatial and temporal distribution of
the biological parameters. Remote sensing technology, however,
is able to acquire the distribution of Chla at large spatial scales,
with the better spatial distribution and temporal resolution than
the traditional techniques. Many remote sensing retrieval methods

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272 Wu et al.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
have been proposed by previous scholars. Simple in form and
convenient in application, the empirical algorithms have been
proposed and widely used in ocean color remote sensing
monitoring (Hu, Lee, and Franz, 2012; O'Reilly et al., 1998). In
order to improve the accuracy of Chla inversion, the semi-
analytical algorithms have been proposed, combing empirical
equations, radiation transfer models, and bio-optical models
(Hoge et al., 2001 Maritorena, Siegel, and Peterson, 2002).
Statistical approaches like neural networks (NN) also performed
reasonably well in a few different studies (Schroeder, Schaale,
and Fischer, 2007; Vilas, Evangelos, and Jesus, 2011). In general,
the physical parameters for semi-analytical algorithms are
relatively hard to obtain, so the empirical models are most widely
used in operational monitoring work. In view of the JZB’s small
area, the coarse spatial resolution of used remote sensing images
(300 m for MERIS and 1 km and 250 m for MODIS) could not
reveal the subtle variations in the spatial and temporal distribution
of Chla. Furthermore, the long-term spatial and temporal
variation of Chla in JZB and its important influencing factors
have not been reported.
Figure 1. Location of Jiaozhou Bay.
Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 102, 2020
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Thus, motivated by the urgent information need on the
eutrophic status of JZB, long-term Landsat data between 1986
and 2017 together with in situ measurements from several field
surveys between 1999 and 2011 were used in this study to reach
the following objectives:
(1) To develop a practical remote sensing algorithm to retrieve
the Chla concentration of JZB;
(2) To document the spatial-temporal patterns of Chla in JZB,
thus filling the knowledge gap for the potential eutrophic regions
in JZB;
(3) To find out the important influencing factors for Chla in
JZB and provide critical information for future environmental
conservation planning.
METHODS
In situ Data
The in situ Chla was obtained from Jiaozhou Bay Marine
Ecosystem Research Station and 31 samples were found quasi-
synchronous with the transit time of Landsat. The data acquisition
time was 1999/11/9, 2005/11/17, 2008/12/11, 2009/7/15,
2010/12/17, 2013/8/19, and 2015/9/10. The information of
observation sites is shown in Figure 1 and Table 1. The
information of surface water samples was collected by organic
glass hydrophore and then filtered through a cellulose acetate
filter membrane with an aperture of 0.45 μm. Based on
corresponding specifications of surveys, the samples from 1991-
2002 and 2003-2008 were measured by spectrophotometer and
fluorophotometer, respectively. According to the study of Sun et
al., (2011), the results of the two methods were consistent, so both
sets of data were used in this study uniformly.
Table 1. Information of observation sites.
Acquisition Date Observation site Sensor path/row
1999-11-09 S9 S10 S8 TM 120/35
2005-11-17 S5 S8 S9 S10 ETM+ 120/35
2008-12-11 S5 S8 S9 S10 S12 S13 ETM+ 120/35
2009-07-15 S5 S9 S12 S13 TM 120/35
2010-12-17 S5 S7 S8 S9 S10 S13 ETM+ 120/35
2013-08-19 S3 S10 S13 ETM+ 120/35
2015-09-10 S1 S2 S4 S6 S7 ETM+ 120/35
The remote sensing reflectance Rrs was collected by a hyper-
sp ectrometer ASD FieldSpec Dual VNIR (Analytical Spectral
Devices, USA). In order to avoid interfere from sunglint and ship
shadows, each spectrum was sampled using above-water spectra
measurement method. Rrs (sr−1) was calculated as follows:
Rrs = (Lw – r × Lsky) ×ρP / (LP×π) (1)
where Lw is the total radiance above water, Lsky is the radiance
from shy, and Lp is the radiance of the reference plank. And r is
the coefficient of Fresnel reflection and it take a value of 0.025.
ρP is the reflectance of the reference plank, whose value was
calibrated to 30 % by manufacturer. The Rrs ranged from 0.0126
to 0.0274 sr-1 at 483 nm and ranged from 0.0196 to 0.0375 sr-1 at
560 nm.
 Spatial-Temporal Variation of Chlorophyll-a 273
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Remote Sensing Data Acquisition and Pre-processing characterize its spatial-temporal variation. The atmospheric
Landsat data from Thematic Mapper (TM), Enhanced correction results of a Landsat ETM+ image captured on March
Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), and Operational Land Imager 24, 2011 were compared with synchronously field measured Rrs
(OLI) were used in this study and downloaded from the United to validate the atmospheric correction method.
States Geological Survey (http://www.usgs.gov/). For quality
control, the images with dense clouds were excluded through Statistical Analysis
visual examination. Then the clouds and cloud shadows on Algorithm performance was statistically analyzed using SPSS
Landsat images were detected by the Fmask algorithm (Zhu, 17.0, where mean relative error (MRE) and root mean square
Wang, and Woodcock, 2015), and cloud mask files were error (RMSE) were calculated as:
generated at the same time for cloud removal. Finally, 381 images
between 1986 and 2017 were left for remote sensing retrieval. The 1 n chlamea − chlaesti 
Landsat data used in this study come from three different sensors. MRE = 1   (2)
n chlamea 
Although TM/ETM+ and OLI shared similar spectral bands, there  
were still many differences among these sensors. In order to 1 n 2
reduce the uncertainties caused by sensor differences, an RMSE = 1 (chlamea − chlaesti) (3)
n
empirical line method (Han, Chen, and Feng, 2015) was used to
establish a linear relationship between the reflectance of OLI and
Where chlamea is the chlorophyll concentration measured in
TM/ETM+. In this way, the reflectance of TM/ETM+ Landsat
the field, chlaesti is the chlorophyll concentration estimated by
images can be adjusted to the same level to OLI data.
the self-constructed inversion algorithm, and n is the number
The ENVI 5.1 was used to destripe the Landsat ETM+ images.
of match-ups analyzed.
The atmospheric correction of Landsat data was conducted with
ACOLITE, which was a special atmospheric correction algorithm
RESULTS
for Landsat (5/7/8) and Sentinel-2 (A/B) imagery. The algorithm
Chla Model Calibration and Validation
uses the dark spectrum fitting method to automatically select the
The Landsat data between 1986 and 2017 above JZB were
most appropriate band to construct the dark target of sub-scene,
downloaded to obtain Rrs of water surface through the ACOLITE
which is used to estimate the atmospheric path reflectance for best
atmospheric correction method. Then this paper examined the
aerosol model selection. The Rayleigh correction reflectivity of
relationship between Landsat reflectance combination and Chla
each pixel is finally obtained by considering the wave segment
concentration with different mathematical formulations. To
ratio of Rayleigh correction reflectivity. For specific parameter
determine the parameters of the model, 21 pairs of in situ Chla vs
settings, please refer to Vanhellemont (2019). The studies of
satellite-derived Rrs were used to calibrate the model, and the
Vanhellemont and Ruddick (2015) in the southern North Sea and
remaining 10 pairs to validate the model. The quadratic equation
the study of Yang et al., (2019) in JZB have proved that the
in the band ratio outperformed the other formulations, and
atmospheric correction method of ACOLITE can be successfully
showed the strongest correlation (R2=0.80, P<0.001, Figure 2a).
used in remote sensing retrieval for turbid coastal water. All of
the Landsat images were used to remotely estimate the Chla and

Figure 2. Calibration (a) and validation (b) of measured and estimated Chla.

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274 Wu et al.
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The remote sensing retrieval model for Chla in JZB was
defined by:
Cchla = 215.44*X2 - 443.93*X + 229.05 (4)
where X represents the band ratio of B2/B1 for Landsat 5 and 7,
and band ratio of B3/B2 for Landsat 8. The model also performed
well for the validation dataset (Figure 2b). The R2, MRE and
RMSE were 0.77, 32.5 % and 0.64 μg/L, respectively. The
scatters in Figure 2 distributed around 1:1 line, which indicated
that the proposed model in this study could be used to estimate
the Chla distribution and variation in JZB with satisfactory
performance.
Spatial-temporal Distribution of Chla
Derived from Landsat images between 1986 and 2017, Figure
3 demonstrated the annual average Chla in JZB with obvious
inter-annual variations. The mean Chla went through ups and
downs between 1986 and 1997, and reached the highest annual
average Chla (3.842 μg/L) in 1997. In the following two decades,
the annual average Chla decreased gradually as shown in Figure
3, with high values in several years like 2008 and 2012. The red
line was the linear fit line between 1997 and 2017 (Chla = -
0.029×year + 61.265, R² = 0.31, P<0.05).
The mean values of spring (March, April, and May), summer
(June, July, and August), autumn (September, October, and
November) and winter (December, January and February) from
1986 to 2017 were calculated, and the results were shown in
Figure 4. In general, the concentration of Chla in the JZB was
relatively low with obvious spatial and seasonal variations. The
highest value of Chla was found in summer (2.599±0.625 μg/L),
while the concentration of Chla in spring (2.191±0.509 μg/L) was
higher than that in autumn (2.051±0.508 μg/L) and winter
(1.759±0.423 μg/L). The distribution trends of Chla concentration
in four seasons were basically the same. From space, the Chla in
the northwestern part of JZB was higher than that in the southeast.
The Chla concentration decreased gradually from nearshore to
open sea. The variation trend of monthly average Chla (not shown)
was consistent with the seasonal one. The monthly average Chla
first increased from January to July, and then decreased until
December. The highest Chla in JZB appeared in July
(3.118±0.772 μg/L), and the lowest Chla appeared in January
(1.640±0.396 μg/L).
In Figure 5, the Chla concentration of all available remote
sensing images from 1986 to 2017 was retrieved by self-
developed algorithm, and the spatial distribution of Chla mean
value and standard deviation (SD) in JZB were calculated. The
mean Chla varied from 0.862 μg/L to 3.764 μg/L, with a mean
value of 2.204±0.509 μg/L. The spatial distribution of mean Chla
shared a similar pattern with the seasonal distribution of Chla in
the JZB. It can be seen from Figure 5a that the Chla concentration
in JZB had obvious step change. The high values of mean Chla
appeared in the northwestern part of JZB and decreased gradually
to the southwest. The lowest mean Chla arose near the water
channel connected to the open sea. The variation trend was
basically consistent with the conclusion of Yang et al., (2019). In
comparison, the SD of the Chla (Figure 5b) varied greatly from
0.310 μg/L to 3.863 μg/L, with an average of 0.627±0.152 μg/L,
indicating a significant spatial variation of the Chla concentration.
Specifically, the high values of Chla SD appeared only adjacent
to the northwestern coast, but no obvious variation was observed
in the rest of the bay.
In order to visualize the spatial-temporal dynamic changes of
Chla concentration of JZB, a series of Landsat images (N = 298)
from 1986 to 2017 were applied to the whole JZB region using a
self-developed remote sensing retrieval algorithm, and the Chla
inversion results of nearly 32 years were obtained. Since the
latitude range of JZB is from 58.98°N to 63.30°N, the whole study
area was divided into 11 parts by latitude in increments of 0.03°,
and the average Chla concentration of each part was calculated.
Figure 6 showed the average Chla concentration and the
corresponding percentage abnormal changes in JZB from 1986 to
2017. The annual average Chla concentration of JZB gradually
increased from north to south, and then showed a decreasing trend
near the Yellow Sea. Both the average Chla concentration and
percentage abnormal change of JZB in 1997 reached the peak.
The annual average Chla concentration after 1997 basically
remained in the range of 1.5-3μg/L, but showed more percentage
anomalies.

Figure 3. Annual average Chla in JZB between 1986 and 2017. The shape of each box was determined by the maximum, minimum, median, mean, 25th
and 75th percentiles of the data. The red line is the linear fit of Chla concentration vs year for 1997-2017.

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 Spatial-Temporal Variation of Chlorophyll-a 275
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

DISCUSSION
Evaluation of Suitability of Landsat
The major challenge for accurate estimation of Chla for coastal
waters is a reliable atmospheric correction. As discussed in
section 2.1, the ACOLITE atmospheric correction method was
tested by comparing the filed measured reflectance ratio with
ACOLITE corrected one. The atmospheric corrected reflectance
ratio is significantly correlated with the contemporaneous in situ
reflectance ratio with a R2 of 0.628, MRE of 8.7 %, and RMSE of
0.106, indicating successful atmospheric correction for Landsat
data in JZB. The good performance of ACOLITE atmospheric
correction method provided powerful support to accurate
estimation of Chla concentration in JZB and other analogous
coastal waters.
Due to high spatial resolution and long-term monitoring results,
Landsat data has been widely used to monitor water quality
parameters in inland lakes, rivers, and coastal waters (Keith et al.,
2018; Li et al., 2018; Yang et al., 2019). Compared with other
satellites (MODIS, MERIS, and GOCI), the relatively long
revisiting period was especially the main drawback of Landsat
data. Moreover, applying the remote sensing model established
with limited in situ data to long time series Landsat images might
introduce uncertainties. Due to the influence of rainy and cloudy
weather in the summer of JZB, the number of available remote
sensing images in summer was smaller than that in other seasons.
This data disunity may cause uncertainty in this result and extra
attention should be paid when analyzing the spatial-temporal
distribution of Chla in summer of JZB. As a result, the spatial-
temporal distribution revealed by remote sensing model may have
a gap to the actual situation. However, taking the reality into
account, the Landsat images seem to be the optimum remote
sensing data of Chla monitoring in JZB. The relatively small area Figure 4. Seasonal distribution of Chla in the JZB.
of JZB makes the high spatial resolution of Landsat data (30 m)
very necessary for remote sensing applications. In comparison,
the coarse spatial resolution (1000 m, 300m, and 500 m) of the
sensors mentioned above makes them hard to acquire subtle
spatial variations due to mixed pixels in coastal lines and narrow
tributaries of JZB. In addition, the Landsat data could provide a
more than 30-year’s dataset, documenting a long-term variation
trend in JZB (Huang et al., 2019). Although the Landsat program
was not specifically designed for ocean color monitoring, the
results of this study indicated that Landsat data was suitable for
monitoring the spatiotemporal variation of Chla in JZB.
According to studies of Li et al., (2019), the quality of water
parameters usually exhibits variability associated with changing
hydrodynamic conditions. This paper also examined the
correlation between Chla and tidal currents in JZB but no
apparent relationship was found. The coarse time resolution of
Landsat data may be the reason for this and more studies using
satellite data with high time resolution are in urgent need.

Accuracy of Retrieval Model

To further evaluate this model, the performance of algorithm
was compared with the existing algorithms in Table 1. The
performances of previous algorithms were not satisfactory, with
low R2 values (0.110~0.583), high MRE (46.7 %~141.7 %), and
RMSE (1.104~1.783 μg/L). Figure 5. Mean value (a) and standard deviation of Chla (b) in the JZB.

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276 Wu et al.
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Figure 6. Variation in Chla concentration at different latitudes of the JZB from 1986 to 2017 and corresponding anomalies

Although all the algorithms mentioned above targeted at
retrieving Chla in ocean waters, the species, structure, size,
density, and other optical factors of the phytoplankton community
might vary significantly between different waters.
Therefore, the algorithms in previous studies are not suitable
for Chla estimation in JZB, and selection of Chla predictor and
format of the algorithms should be made on a case-by-case basis.
In addition, the Chla retrieval model and spatial-temporal
distribution proposed here should be considered more robust than
previous studies, due to the utilization of a large number of remote
sensing images and acquisition dates used in this study.
Furthermore, the suspended sediment brought by the river will
reach the sensor through the reflected and scattered light of the
water body, resulting in significant changes in reflectance and
uncertainties in inversion results (Table 2).
Driving Forces
The effects of precipitation, temperature, river discharge, wind
speed, and sunshine duration on the growth of phytoplankton in
the water bodies have been reported in previous studies (Le et al.,
2014; Li et al., 2018). Given the obvious seasonal variation of
Chla distributions in JZB (Figure 4), this paper try to find out what
could cause significant seasonality. The influence of
environmental factors on Chla was further revealed in Table 3
when monthly climatology was considered. Monthly variation of
meteorological factors in JZB were important factors affecting
Chla, proved by the statistically-significant positive correlation
between monthly accumulated precipitation and Chla (r = 0.81, p
< 0.001). Minimal and maximal precipitation occurred in January
and July, respectively, coincident with the minima and maxima
of Chla in JZB. The air temperature also demonstrated positive
correlation with Chla (r = 0.73, p<0.01). In addition, if the
maximal river discharge in August was removed, the correlation
between discharge and Chla was remarkably enhanced (r rises
from 0.40 to 0.82). According to hydrologic data, 44 % of the
river discharge concentrated in August, most of which comes
from the JZB basin Dagu River watershed. The result indicated
that the sharp discharge increased in the short-term interfered
with the analysis of influence factors. Although wind speed and
sunshine duration have been reported as influence factors of Chla
in oceanic and estuarine waters (Le et al., 2014), no significant
correlation was found according to this datasets (Table 3),
suggesting that these factors played a minor role in seasonal
variation of Chla in JZB.
Further analysis of the correlation between annual mean air
temperature and Chla indicated that air temperature served as an
influencing factor controlling phytoplankton growth, but the
correlation varied with the temperature value (Figure 5). When
the annual mean air temperature was less than 13.5 ℃, the Chla
was positively correlated with air temperature (as shown by red
regression line in Figure 7), with R2 of 0.33 (P < 0.05). While the
air temperature was above 13.5 ℃, a significantly negative
correlation between Chla and air temperature was witnessed (as
shown by blue regression line in Figure 7), with R2 of 0.47 (P <
0.05). This phenomenon indicated that the air temperature played
a driving role in phytoplankton growth in JZB within certain

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 Spatial-Temporal Variation of Chlorophyll-a 277
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temperature range, which made the relationship present a positive
correlation between them. However, when temperature grows
larger than the threshold, it will become a limiting condition to
inhibit the growth of phytoplankton, which will make the air
temperature and Chla negatively correlated (Ha, Koike, and
Nhuan, 2014; Tang, Liu, and Chen, 2014).
The pixel by pixel correlation patterns between monthly mean
Chla and monthly mean precipitation, temperature, river
discharge, and wind speed were shown in Figure 8. The high
correlations between Chla, precipitation and temperature (Figure
8a and 8b) were in accord with results in Table 3. This affirmed
that precipitation and temperature played important roles in
regulating phytoplankton biomass for most parts of the bay. In
comparison, the river discharge only affected the phytoplankton
biomass in the northwestern part of the bay, where the estuary of
Dagu River located. Serving the major water source of JZB, the
influence of Dagu River discharge on Chla quickly weakened
toward the central bay. The correlation pattern of wind speed
(Figure 8 d) agreed with previous studies (Le et al., 2014; Green
and Jr, 2008). The negative influence exerted by the wind in the
coastal area of JZB may be due to the reduction in light
availability to the phytoplankton community, which potentially
caused by resuspended sediment in the shallow waters (Salisbury
et al., 2004) or a deepening of the surface mixed layer (Le et al.,
2014). The above analysis proved that various driving factors had
different effects on Chla. This paper used a stepwise multiple
regression analysis method to further analyze the comprehensive
influence of different driving factors on Chla variation.
Using the Chla concentration as the dependent variable, the
optimal multiple regression equation was established to screen
out the relatively important influencing factors (as shown in Table
4). According to equation 3 of Table 4, precipitation, temperature,
sunshine and discharge mainly explained the variation of Chla
concentration in JZB. Although the change of Chla concentration
was mainly dominated by natural factors, according to Yang et
al., (2019), human activities also had a certain impact on the
temporal and spatial variation of Chla concentration in JZB. Yang
et al., (2019) calculated the landscape pattern index of JZB
watershed and found that the northwestern coast of JZB was
occupied by aquaculture, which was relevant to high Chla
concentration in this area. The high value in Figures 5a and 5b of
this paper also verified the artificial influence on Chla
concentration.
CONCLUSIONS
Our study demonstrated that Landsat images with high spatial
resolution and long-term records could be better used to estimate
Chla spatial-temporal dynamics in JZB. Overall, the Chla
retrieval model proposed here gave the fine results with the high
determination coefficient (R2=0.77, P <0.001) and the low RMSE
(0.64 μg/L) and MRE (32.5 %). The annual mean Chla in JZB
reached the highest value in 1997 and decreased gradually in the
following two decades. The seasonal variation of Chla is obvious:
the maximum value of Chla appeared in summer, followed by
spring, autumn, and winter. Accordingly, the monthly mean Chla
peaked in July, while the minimum occurred in January. The
spatial distribution of mean value of Chla on different time scales
shared a similar pattern. The high values appeared in the
northwestern part of JZB and decreased gradually to the
southwest. The lowest values arose near the water channel
connected to the open sea. The spatial heterogeneity was mainly
caused by river discharge, while the temporal heterogeneity was
mainly due to the seasonal variations in precipitation, temperature,
and river discharge.

Table 2. Comparison of performance between the existing proposed Chla retrieval models.
Model Sensors TM band math Form R2 MRE RMSE
(Keith et al., 2018) Landsat 8 OLI (1/b1-1/b2)b3 quadratic polynomial 0.58 67.4 % 1.10
(Coelho et al., 2017) Landsat 8 OLI/RapidEye b2/(b1+b3) quadratic polynomial 0.20 101.1 % 1.53
(Al-shehhi, Gherboudj,
MODIS b3/b1 cubic polynomial 0.11 123.9 % 1.64
and Ghedira, 2017)
(Watanabe et al., 2015) Landsat 8 OLI b4/b2 quadratic polynomial 0.12 75.2 % 1.78
(Isenstein, Trescott, and
Landsat 7 ETM+ b2, b3 Multiple linear regression 0.15 125.1 % 1.58
Park, 2014)
Our model Landsat 8 OLI b2/b1 quadratic polynomial 0.77 32.5 % 0.64
Notes: The original algorithm band math was converted to the closest comparable Landsat TM band math.

Table 3. Pearson’s correlation matrix for Chla (μg/L), accumulated precipitation (mm), air temperature (℃), river discharge (m 3/s), wind speed (m/s),
and sunshine duration (h) of each climatological month. Probabilities are in brackets [ ].
Chla Precipitation Temperature Discharge Wind Sunshine
Chla 1.00[0.00]
Precipitation 0.81[0.00] 1.00[0.00]
Temperature 0.73[0.01] 0.88[0.00] 1.00[0.00]
Discharge 0.40[0.15] 0.83[0.00] 0.73[0.01] 1.00[0.00]
Wind -0.39[0.25] -0.74[0.01] -0.76[0.00] -0.77[0.00] 1.00[0.00]
Sunshine 0.22[0.50] 0.37[0.25] 0.06[0.85] 0.07[0.83] 0.02[0.95] 1.00[0.00]

Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 102, 2020

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278 Wu et al.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________

Table 4. Stepwise multiple regression between Chla and driving factors (Only the results of P < 0.05 were shown).
Multiple regression equation R2 P
1 Chla=0.012×Precipitation+2.503 0.643 0.002
2 Chla=0.023×Precipitation-0.0002×Discharge+2.306 0.867 0.000
3 Chla=0.028×Precipitation-0.024×Temperature+0.254×Sunshine-0.0002×Discharge+0.806 0.916 0.001

The results presented in this study not only demonstrated the

Chla spatial-temporal dynamics in JZB, but also highlighted the
importance of remote sensing in water quality monitoring and
management. Meanwhile, the uncertainties introduced by data
deficiency, atmospheric correction, retrieval model, and long time
series analysis of this results were discussed. In the future, the
latest generation of ocean color sensors (Sentinel-2/MSI and
Sentinel-3/OLCI) might provide better spatial-temporal
resolution for Chla observation in JZB.

Figure 7. Correlation between annual mean Chla and air temperature.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study is funded by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (41706194, 42076185, 41876206, 41976166,
and 61890964), the Shandong Provincial Natural Science
Foundation, China (ZR2016DB23), the SDUST Research Fund
(2019TDJH103), the National Key Research and Development
Program, China (2016YFA0600102 and 2018YFC1407200), the
China-Korea Joint Ocean Research Center, China (PI-2019-1-01),
and the Dragon-4 project (32405). We would like to thank the
following data providers. In situ data were measured by the
Jiaozhou Bay Marine Ecosystem Research Station and
meteorological data were obtained from the China
Meteorological Data Sharing Service System (CMDC).

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