Four examples of optimal wavelength relationships, one for each biogeochemical quantity, are given in Table 2. In the case of SPM and POC estimates, the best results are achieved when values of bbp are used this website for the wavelength 420 nm (see lines 1 and 2 in Table 2). But the statistical parameters

characterising these two new relationships are very similar to those given for the two formulas presented earlier ( (1) and (2)) which make use of approximated values of bbp(443). No significant improvement is achieved in these two cases (compare the statistical parameters shown in Table 2 and Table 1). A small but noticeable improvement can be found for the statistical relationship between POC and an(488) (see line 3 in Table 2, and Figure 5a): equation(6) POC=1.35(an(488))0.923.POC=1.35an4880.923. In this case, when we compare it to the equation (3) selleck compound presented earlier, there is a decrease in the standard error factor X from 1.59 to 1.55. But the largest possible improvement in favour of a formula making use of the optimal wavelength is obtainable (and this is also in agreement with common physical intuition) for a formula for estimating Chl a based on values of an(676), i.e. values at the red peak of that pigment absorption spectrum (see line 4 in Table 2, and Figure 5b): equation(7) Chla=45.6an6760.854.

In this case, when we compare the standard error factor X to equation (4) presented earlier, the improvement in its value is the largest (i.e. the value of X decreases from 1.54 to 1.35). But the values of all the statistical parameters obtained in that particular case have to be treated with extra caution. The values of coefficient an(676) measured with the AC-9 instrument are spectrally located close to the 715 nm band, at which, according to the absorption measurement correction Dapagliflozin methodology applied in this work (the so-called proportional method, see the Methods section), the whole of the measured signal was assumed to have been caused by light scattering, and was consequently

subtracted to make an(715) equal to 0. Although this methodology has been widely used by many oceanographers, it is known to be an imperfect simplification (see e.g. the discussion in the paper by McKee et al. (2008)). In situations where the assumption that absorption by particles in water of the 715 nm band is negligible does not hold, the resultant corrected absorption coefficients an could be encumbered with a certain error, especially for bands lying spectrally close to the band used for correction. As a result of this, the corrected values of an(676) in our case may represent the height of the 676 nm absorption peak above the true but unknown value of absorption at 715 nm rather than the real absolute value of absorption at 676 nm. The other fact which should also be taken into account, and is obviously not analysed here, is that apart from the supposed statistical attractiveness of the Chl a vs.