THE EARTHS OCEAN ECOSYSTEMS ARE COMPRISED OF A MYRIAD OF PHYSICAL CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL PROCESSES THAT CREATE ADAPTIVE AND RESILIENT ECOLOGICAL COMMUNITIES. THESE ECOSYSTEMS ARE AN INTEGRAL PART OF THE PLANETS BIOGEOCHEMICAL CYCLES SUCH AS CARBON NITROGEN PHOSPHORUS SILICA IRON ETC. WHICH IN TURN ARE COUPLED TO AND INFLUENCED BY THE PLANETS CLIMATE; THE OCEANS BIOLOGICAL CARBON PUMP IS ONE SUCH CYCLE SEE VOLK AND HOFFERT 1985. THE STRENGTH AND EFFICIENCY OF THE BIOLOGICAL PUMP ARE CONTROLLED BY PARTICULATE ORGANIC CARBON POC PRODUCTION NEAR THE SURFACE AND ITS TROPHIC REMINERALIZATION WITH DEPTH SEE BUESSELER 2007; NEUER 2002 WHICH IS EXTENSIVELY REGULATED BY THE DISTRIBUTION AND ABUNDANCE OF PHYTOPLANKTON FUNCTIONAL TYPES PFTS.WE PROPOSE A BIOOPTICAL LABORATORY STUDY TO DEVELOP A MORE EXTENSIVE PHYTOPLANKTON SPECTRAL LIBRARY THAT WILL BE COUPLED WITH SATELLITE RADIANCE PRODUCTS AND EXISTING TIME SERIES DATASETS OF PFTS TO IMPROVE OUR ABILITY TO OBSERVE AND PREDICT CHANGES IN PFTS IN RESPONSE TO CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE CONSEQUENT IMPACTS ON THE BIOLOGICAL CARBON PUMP. SPECIFICALLY WE WILL:1. COMPARE PHYTOPLANKTON SPECTRAL SHAPE PFT ALGORITHMS SEE PHYDOTAX PALACIOS 2015 AND HPLC BASED PIGMENT DISTRIBUTIONS OF PFTS WITH DIRECT OBSERVATIONS OF PFT DISTRIBUTIONS AT OCEAN TIME SERIES SITES.2. CONDUCT CONTROLLED LABORATORY EXPERIMENTS FOR EACH MAJOR PFT QUANTIFYING CHANGES IN OPTICAL FINGERPRINTS PIGMENT CONTENT AND CHL A AND POC NORMALIZED PIGMENT RATIOS IN RESPONSE TO CLIMATE CHANGE VARIABLES IN MULTI STRESSOR EXPERIMENTS.3. REFINE EXISTING PFT ALGORITHMS BY INCORPORATING NEW MEASUREMENTS OF CHANGES IN OPTICAL PROPERTIES AND PIGMENT CONTENT OF CULTURES GROWN UNDER CONDITIONS REPRESENTATIVE OF FUTURE CLIMATE CHANGE.4. RE COMPARE THE ALGORITHMS DERIVED IN TASK 2 AND 3 ABOVE TO THE TIME SERIES OBSERVATIONS TO ASSESS IF THERE IS IMPROVEMENT IN AGREEMENT BETWEEN IN SITU OBSERVATIONS AND SATELLITE PRODUCTS AND THE ABILITY OF THESE NEW ALGORITHMS TO DETECT OBSERVED ECOSYSTEM CHANGES.WE WILL LEVERAGE ACCESS TO THE FACILITIES OF THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR MARINE ALGAE AND MICROBIOTA NCMA AT BIGELOW LABORATORY AND GROW REPRESENTATIVES OF EACH PFT IN SEMI CONTINUOUS CULTURES IN CONDITIONS REPRESENTATIVE OF PRESENT AND FUTURE OCEAN CONDITIONS. MANNINOS GROUP WILL COLLECT A SPECTRAL LIBRARY OF THESE TAXA THAT WILL CONSIST OF HYPERSPECTRAL UV VIS ABSORBANCE AND MULTI SPECTRALAND ANGULAR SCATTERING PROPERTIES AND APPLY RADIATIVE TRANSFER NUMERICAL MODELING TO DERIVE HYPERSPECTRAL UV V IS REFLECTANCE. THIS EXPERIMENTAL SPECTRAL LIBRARY WILL BE USED TO REFINE AND EVALUATE THE PHYDOTAX APPROACH SUCH AS PALACIOS FOR OUR OPEN OCEAN STUDY REGIONS AND OTHER SPECTRAL SHAPE BASED ALGORITHMS FOR RETRIEVAL OF PFTS FROM THE PACE AND OTHER HYPERSPECTRAL AND MULTISPECTRALOCEAN COLOR SENSORS.WE WILL VALIDATE THESE PFT APPROACHES USING DATA FROM THE BERMUDA ATLANTIC TIME SERIES STUDY BATS SITE WHICH HAS A GREATER THAN 20 YEAR RECORD OF MONTHLY OPTICAL SCATTERING ABSORPTION AND REMOTE SENSING REFLECTANCE MEASUREMENTS SUCH AS BERMUDA BIOOPTICS PROGRAM HPLC PIGMENTS SUCH AS LOMAS 2013 AND AN APPROXIMATELY 20 YEAR RECORD OF PFTS FOR PICO AND NANOPHYTOPLANKTON SUCH AS WALLHEAD 2013 AND HAS BEENSHOWN TO EXPERIENCE STRONG VARIABILITY IN SEASONAL FORCING AS WELL AS LONGER TERM CLIMATE OSCILLATIONS FOR EXAMPLE NORTH ATLANTIC OSCILLATION.WE WILL ALSO USE THE ATLANTIC ZONE MONITORING PROGRAM PHYTOPLANKTON TIME SERIES FROM THE SCOTIAN SHELF TO PROVIDE A CONTRAST IN PFT ABUNDANCE AND PHYSICAL REGIME. THESE TIME SERIES WILL ALLOW US TO INVESTIGATE BOTH TEMPORAL AND SPATIAL PATTERNS IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC OCEAN.THIS PROPOSAL RESPONDS TO SECTION A.3 OCEAN BIOLOGY AND BIOGEOCHEMISTRY SUBSECTION 2.1 RESEARCH IN OCEAN ECOLOGY. SPECIFICALLY IT FITS THE OBJECTIVES OF THE PACE SCIENCE MISSION AND WILL PROVIDE MUCH NEEDED INFORMATION ON IMPROVED PHYTOPLANKTON FUNCTIONAL TYPE ALGORITHMS.