DETECTION OF SMALL-SCALE COASTAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROCESSES THROUGH LANDSAT-TM/ETM+ IMAGES: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE STUDY OF BIOLOGICAL PROCESSES ALONG THE PATAGONIAN COASTS OF ARGENTINA

The Argentine coastal zone, with its highly productive coastal waters, allows the existence of important seabird and marine mammal breeding assemblages, fish and crustacean spawning and nursery areas, and extensive macroalgae and mollusk beds. Knowledge of factors determining the dynamics of coastal waters is urgently needed to help understand their influence on biological processes and marine biodiversity. Available information in the region is currently scarce due to the low number of oceanographic cruises and oceanographic modeling studies. We evaluate the capacity of high-resolution satellite information for the identification and analysis of coastal processes such as fronts, upwellings, and small scale eddies. Using two case studies, we show how the analyses of temporal sequences of LANDSAT-TM and ETM+ images allow refining the formulation of biological hypothesis. In the first case, we relate seabird colony distribution with small-scale coastal upwelling areas, and in the second, we analyze the influence of a frontal zone on the recruitment of a commercially important scallop specie