Intertidal Biological - Climatological Studies : Results From Use of MODIS Data, in Situ Observations and Model Predictions
Venkat
Lakshmi, University of South Carolina, lakshmi@mailbox.sc.edu
Srinivas
Chintalapati, University of South Carolina, chintala@mailbox.sc.edu
Brian
Helmuth, University of South Carolina, helmuth@biol.sc.edu
(Presenting)
Christel
Purvis, University of South Carolina, purviscl@gmail.com
David
Wethey, University of South Carolina, wethey@biol.sc.edu
Sarah
Woodin, University of South Carolina, woodin@biol.sc.edu
Thomas
J
Hilbish, University of South Carolina, hilbish@biol.sc.edu
The intertidal zone, with its complex blend of marine and terrestrial environments, is one of the intensively studied ecosystems, in understanding the effects of climate change on species abundance and distribution. As climatic conditions change, the geographic limits of the intertidal species will likely move towards more tolerable coastal conditions. Traditionally, understanding climate change effects through species physiologic response have involved use of in situ measurements and thermal engineering models. But these approaches are constrained by their data intensive requirements and may not be suitable for predicting change patterns relevant to large scale species distributions. Satellite remote sensing provides an alternate approach, given the regular global coverage at moderate spatial resolutions.
The present study uses six years of land surface temperature (LST) and sea surface temperature (SST) data from MODIS/Terra instrument along various coastlines around the globe – East and West Coast US, Southern Africa, Northern Japan and New Zealand. Apart from the dominant annual cycle in LST and SST, the other seasonal cycles vary from dominant semi-annual cycles in lower latitudes to 1.5 and 2 year cycles at higher latitudes. The monthly anomalies show strong spatial structure at lower latitudes when compared to higher latitudes, with the exception of US east coast, where the spatial structure extended almost along the whole coastline, indicating strong regulation from the Gulf Stream. The patterns along different coast lines are consistent with the atmospheric and ocean circulation patterns existing at those regions. These results suggest that the climatology at the coastal regions can be adequately represented using satellite-based temperature data, thus enabling further research in understanding the effects of climate change on species abundance and distribution at larger scales.
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