Dierssen, Heidi: University of Connecticut (Project Lead)
Mouroulis, Pantazis: NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory (Institution Lead)
Project Funding:
2013 - 2015
NRA: 2012 NASA: Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry
Funded by NASA
Abstract:
Airborne imaging spectroscopy has utility for high resolution spatial and spectral discrimination of coastal ecosystems, but poor sensor technology and lack of coincident ground truth measurements has hampered the ability to adequately develop and test these methods. Here, we propose to conduct overflights with the new PRISM sensor, designed and built specifically for coastal applications, and make coincident field measurements in Greater Florida Bay (overflight costs included in this budget). This region is characterized by dense and diverse seagrass beds, two different types of floating vegetation, as well as coral reefs and regular blooms of the phytoplankton Trichodesmium, that make it an ideal pilot area for further application of this new sensor. Our primary objective will be to differentiate the abundance and distribution of two different species of seagrass, flat-leaved Thalassia testudinum (turtlegrass) and thin cylindrical-leaved Syringodium filiforme (manateegrass). Because manateegrass appears to be buoyant with carbon exported out of the ecosystem, we hypothesize that this species is replacing the negatively-buoyant and historically abundant turtlegrass due to the influx of exogenous nutrients into the Greater Florida Bay system. We propose to use high spatial and spectral resolution imagery from the new PRISM sensor to derive quantitative measures of seagrass biomass (e.g., Leaf area index, rates of primary production) over this region and potentially to use canopy-level differences in near infrared reflectance to develop algorithms to differentiate these two different species of seagrass. We propose to measure the biomass of export debris within these beds and also develop remote sensing techniques to potentially track large wracks of floating manatee leaf debris. Hyperspectral reflectance measurements will distinguish between the two types of floating vegetation common to this region, floating seaweed Sargassum natans and Syringodium leaf debris. A variety of biological, optical, and physical measurements will be conducted including benthic reflectance, seagrass leaf area index, net primary productivity, water column inherent optical properties, and hyperspectral sea spectral reflectance. In addition, we propose to work with NASA's data archival program SeaBASS to develop new database architecture for archiving optically shallow water field measurements to make these and ancillary data available for the larger research community. Our previous experience in the region and with the PRISM sensor allow us to exploit cutting-edge technology and leverage existing equipment and ongoing research projects that strengthen the proposed research efforts at lower overall cost. In addition, we will train the next generation of scientists through graduate and postdoctoral mentoring and are willing to coordinate field efforts with other NASA-funded groups. Results from this project will better equip NASA's Earth Science Enterprise to understand the consequences of climate change and increased human activities on the biodiversity of coastal ecosystems.
More details may be found in the following project profile(s):