C. J. Lorenzen 



Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution 



Woods Hole, MA 



The Biological Significance of Surface 

 Chlorophyll Measurements 



The possibility of obtaining surface or near surface measurements 

 of chlorophyll by remote sensing raises the question of the ecological 

 importance of these measurements. Certain measurements, i.e., euphotic 

 zone chlorophyll and/or productivity, are of much greater interest and 

 importance in biological studies of the ocean. 



It is possible to test the correlation of surface chlorophyll con- 

 centration with these other parameters with data on hand and this was 

 done. The data was obtained from both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans 

 and covered the range of values one might reasonably expect to encounter 

 in the oceans. The values are: 



euphotic zone 10-91 meters 



surface chlorophyll O.oU-28 mg m 



-2 

 euphotic zone chlorophyll 7.0-277 mg m 



— 2 1 

 primary production 0.06-11 gm C m~ day 



The data was transformed into the natural logarithm and entered into 



Least Squares Regression. The results are summarized below. 



15-1 



