Seasonal pattern of the chlorophyll-a in a coastal lagoon from the southern Baja California (México), described with in situ observations and MODIS-Aqua imagery

Abstract This study aims to estimate, with a climatology perspective, the average seasonal pattern of phytoplankton biomass (SP-PBavg) and its distribution in Bahia Magdalena (Mexico) as a baseline to evaluate PB changes in future studies. This lagoon is in a semi-arid region, lacks river discharges, and channels with vegetation are limited at the north and south zones. SP-PBavg was estimated with chlorophyll-a (chl-a) data obtained in 21 sites on daily MODIS-Aqua imagery (2002–2013; n = 2,418) from a ready-to-use public database. The first step was to establish criteria to use imagery and validate with in situ observations taken in 14 sites (2002–2011; n = 312). MODIS-Aqua overestimated chl-a (mean ± confidence interval95: 5.09 ± 0.97 mg m−3; n = 225); with differences among sites. There were no differences near the inlet lagoon (p