3D ecological modelling of the Aveiro coast (Portugal)

Until now the most of studies concerning the dynamics of the Portuguese coastalecosystem focused in estuarine, lagoon and rivers systems, whereas more knowledge aboutthe spatial and the seasonal distribution of phytoplankton population at the coast is stillneeded. The present work is aimed to study some aspects of ecological modelling of thenearshore Aveiro coastal system, namely the influence of physical forcings in thedistribution of phytoplankton biomass. In order to implement the ecological model, thevalidation of the model were assessed by comparing simulation to data to a vertical andhorizontal distribution of temperature, nutrients and phytoplankton biomass, obtained fromthe several surveys performed along the Portuguese coast during the last decades (Moita,2001). The results evidence, that the physical processes play an important role in theunderstanding the phytoplankton dynamics and the close relationship between the physicalforcings and the temperature and the phytoplankton distributions.