'''DEFINITION'''

The time series are derived from the regional chlorophyll reprocessed (MY) product as distributed by CMEMS. This dataset, derived from multi-sensor (SeaStar-SeaWiFS, AQUA-MODIS, NOAA20-VIIRS, NPP-VIIRS, Envisat-MERIS and Sentinel3-OLCI) Rrs spectra produced by CNR using an in-house processing chain, is obtained by means of the Mediterranean Ocean Colour regional algorithms: an updated version of the MedOC4 (Case 1 (off-shore) waters, Volpe et al., 2019, with new coefficients) and AD4 (Case 2 (coastal) waters, Berthon and Zibordi, 2004). The processing chain and the techniques used for algorithms merging are detailed in Colella et al. (2023). Monthly regional mean values are calculated by performing the average of 2D monthly mean (weighted by pixel area) over the region of interest. The deseasonalized time series is obtained by applying the X-11 seasonal adjustment methodology on the original time series as described in Colella et al. (2016), and then the Mann-Kendall test (Mann, 1945; Kendall, 1975) and Sens’s method (Sen, 1968) are subsequently applied to obtain the magnitude of trend.

'''CONTEXT'''

Phytoplankton and chlorophyll concentration as a proxy for phytoplankton respond rapidly to changes in environmental conditions, such as light, temperature, nutrients and mixing (Colella et al. 2016). The character of the response depends on the nature of the change drivers, and ranges from seasonal cycles to decadal oscillations (Basterretxea et al. 2018). Therefore, it is of critical importance to monitor chlorophyll concentration at multiple temporal and spatial scales, in order to be able to separate potential long-term climate signals from natural variability in the short term. In particular, phytoplankton in the Mediterranean Sea is known to respond to climate variability associated with the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) (Basterretxea et al. 2018, Colella et al. 2016).

'''KEY FINDINGS'''

In the Mediterranean Sea, the trend average for the 1997-2023 period is slightly negative (-0.73±0.65% per year) emphasising the results obtained from previous release (1997-2022). This result is in contrast with the analysis of Sathyendranath et al. (2018) that reveals an increasing trend in chlorophyll concentration in all the European Seas. Starting from 2010-2011, except for 2018-2019, the decrease of chlorophyll concentrations is quite evident in the deseasonalized timeseries (in green), and in the maxima of the observations (grey line), starting from 2015. This attenuation of chlorophyll values of the last decade, results in an overall negative trend for the Mediterranean Sea.

'''DOI (product):'''

https://doi.org/10.48670/moi-00259