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Lidar technology is increasingly applied to the inversion of oceanic biological parameters and optical properties based on empirical and semi-empirical bio-optical models. However, these models cannot be directly applied to inland waters due to their complex composition, and research on the biological parameters and optical properties of inland waters remains limited. In this study, the Fernald method was employed to retrieve the vertical distribution of optical properties in Qiandao Lake for the first time using shipborne lidar data obtained in June 2019. By quantifying the depth-resolved optical contributions of biological components, the vertical distributions of chlorophyll-a concentration were mapped with greater precision. The lidar-estimated optical properties exhibited characteristic spatiotemporal distributions, which were closely related to water quality. At the inflow of Xin'an River, the attenuation and scattering coefficient showed a gradual increase with depth. At the north–south-oriented reservoir area and the outflow of Qiandao Lake, an apparently continuous subsurface layer with the maximum signal occurred at approximately 3.5 m. The vertical distributions of chlorophyll-a profiles were consistently classified as subsurface chlorophyll maxima, with the maximum value of chlorophyll-a concentration fluctuating between 4 and 12 μg/L. The subsurface phytoplankton layer was observed at water depths ranging from 1.5 to 3.5 m, with a thickness of 3 to 6 m. Furthermore, the influences of lidar ratio Sp(z) and reference value bbp(zm) were discussed as significant sources of inversion error in the Fernald method. These results indicate that lidar technology holds great potential for the long-term monitoring of lakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The traditional way to detect the vertical structure of seawater optical properties and chlorophyll-a is mainly through shipboard discrete observations or biogeochemical-argo profiling floats, which requires considerable time to cover a limited area. In this study, the vertical distribution of seawater optical properties and chlorophyll-a concentration across two different optically contrasted sea areas from the East China Sea (ESC) to the South China Sea (SCS) were obtained for the first time using a shipboard integrated Mie–Raman–fluorescence Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) for large-scale observations, with a total observation distance of over 3700 km. More than 74000 LiDAR profiles were obtained from September 5 to September 15, 2020. In general, the LiDAR-estimated inherent optical properties (IOPs) and chlorophyll-a values decreased from turbid water in the ECS to clear water in the SCS. Subsurface scattering layers were often observed at depths ranging from 10 to 20 m along the SCS coast. Subsequently, the LiDAR-derived results were compared against in situ measurements. In addition, the diurnal hourly variation in IOPs and chlorophyll-a by LiDAR at a fixed coastal station was monitored for the first time, which was relatively lower in the early morning and midday yet was higher in the evening, while the relative tide height showed the reverse change trend, which revealed that the tide possibly impacted the diurnal variation in IOPs and chlorophyll-a on the SCS coast. Overall, our results indicate that the LiDAR remote sensing technique is effective and feasible to monitor large-scale and long-term subsurface phytoplankton structure over different optically contrasted sea regions, and integration of multiple detection mechanisms will enhance the monitoring capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]