Detecting cyanobacterial blooms in large North European lakes using the Maximum Chlorophyll Index

The Maximum Chlorophyll Index (MCI), developed for the MERIS sensor processing scheme, is used to investigate the seasonal dynamics, spatial distribution, and coverage of cyanobacterial blooms over Lake Peipsi (Estonia/Russia) and Lake Võrtsjärv (Estonia). In these optically complex waters, the amounts of suspended matter and dissolved organic matter vary greatly and independently of the phytoplankton biomass. We demonstrate that MCI is a useful, new tool for detecting and estimating cyanobacterial biomass (R2 = 0.73), phytoplankton biomass (R2 =0.70) and chlorophyll a concentration (R2 = 0.64). The MCI-derived results are consistent with known patterns of phytoplankton dynamics in these lakes, whose optical properties are in the same range as in many coastal regions of the Baltic Sea.