FEATURES OF CHLOROPHYLL DISTRIBUTION IN T HE SKAGERRAK AND THE KATTEGAT AND A PROBLEM OF REMOTE-SENSING OF BIOLOGICAL PRODUCTIVITY IN THE SHELF ZONE OF THE OCEAN

Strong intermittence of chlorophyll profile shape over a distance of f ew kilometers and accumulations of chlorophyll at the lower part of th e photic layer or beneath it have been revealed from data collected wi th a flourescence probe in the Skagerrak and the Kattegat in 1990-1991 . Such accumulations are inaccessible to remote sensing. Their occurre nce decreases correlation between the surface chlorophyll and its tota l content in the water column. Strong intermittence of the profile sha pe makes difficult to account for inhomogeneity of chlorophyll distrib ution as the biological productivity is remotely determined from sea s urface color. These features of chlorophyll distribution are fairly co mmon in the shelf ateas of the ocean, making necessary to develop in s itu techniques for high-resolution recording of quantities related to biological productivity.