Begin by opening a JPEG or PNG figure of the chlorophyll a decadal biomass into the Illustrator workspace. Then vectorize each of the three chlorophyll a seasonal cycles by removing the background and saving the image as an EPS file. Then create a new art board in a new Illustrator workspace by clicking and dragging the square art board tool in the toolbar.
Adjust the size by clicking on properties and transform to make three identical art boards of the same size. Drag and drop the chlorophyll a EPS files onto the three art boards. Go to properties and embed to add it to the new art board.
Create a new layer by selecting the sticky note icon. Next, create a rectangle within the new layer with the rectangle tool from the toolbar. Fill the rectangle with a light blue gradient using the gradient tool from the toolbar.
Use the line segment tool from the toolbar to create a box attached to the trend line. Make the line straight and aligned by holding the Shift button, then press the Ctrl key and select all the components, including the lines and trend line, within the layer. Then select object, followed by path and join.
Repeat creating a rectangle and fill it with a blue to red color gradient to represent warming water temperature across the three decadal panels. Create a third rectangle of equal size and fill it with the phytoplankton swatch pattern corresponding to that decade. Place the grouped line segments within the layer of rectangles.
Next, select the two smaller rectangles and the grouped line segments. Select object, then clipping mask, followed by make. This will remove the top fill of the shape.
Repeat creating a rectangle and fill it with a red to blue color gradient to represent a warming water temperature across the three decadal panels. To add images of microscopic phytoplankton onto the phytoplankton patterns, select open and click on the image file to open it in the Illustrator. Then create a circle with the ellipse tool from the toolbar and overlay it on top of the phytoplankton image.
Hold the Shift key to select both the shape and the image. Then in the menu, click on object, then clipping mask, followed by make to fill the shape with the image. Repeat for selected phytoplankton images, and distribute across the three decades to look like a magnifying glass zooming in on the illustrative phytoplankton.
Now use the rectangle tool from the toolbar to create a text box on each of the decade art boards. Use the type tool to click and type information about each decade. Add text at the top of each decade with the name of the decade, and add the names of the corresponding seasons at the bottom of each of the three panels.
Import the saved Illustrator file and select to only import the three completed decades. Select all and export as a PDF file. Print the panels on heavyweight matter paper and install with hanging hardware.
Visualization of phytoplankton data showed a decline in phytoplankton biomass from the 1970s to 1990s to 2010s. All decades exhibited a bimodal peak in chlorophyll a concentration with the first peak occurring in winter and the second occurring in summer. Also, Thalassiosira and Skeletonema species increased from the 1970s to 1990s.
Other taxa, such as Eucampia, oscillated in abundance, as shown by the increased presence of more Eucampia zodiacus images in the 2010s compared to the 1970s and 1990s.
