This report contributes to the assessment of abiotic and biotic factors, their relationships, and ongoing natural and human driven processes justify their inclusion in an ecological network of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), as well as analysing their potential interconnectivity for the shelf of the Adriatic and Ionian Sea. In order a method for processing and analysis of approximately 4456 files with L2 high resolution ocean colour satellite Earth observation data from the MERIS/ENVISAT satellite sensor allowed to study the water mass distribution and follow the pathways and the modification of biogeochemical characteristics along their travel towards the Adriatic-­‐Ionian Sea have been performed. Based on this analysis the coastal zone of the pilot project area was subdivided into 6 geographical zones with application of a semi-­‐automatic zoning method based on analysis of time series of water quality parameters derived from MERIS optical data. Time series of water quality parameters were built for each zone, which allows estimating the spatial and temporal availability of light at the bottom and seasonal dynamics of light regime. The resulting maps with these zones are provided in the data files though the standard online interfaces. For the entire Mediterranean Sea a similar step wise optical classification have been used and at the end the ocean areas are classified in to five distinct classes based on analysis of the large scale ocean colour data for the ESA Climate Change Initiative (CCI) data base.

NERSC Technical report no. 348 (A). CoCoNet Deliverable 11.9.