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OCEAN COLOR REMOTE SENSING OF SEAGRASSES
Seagrasses play a significant role in the biogeochemistry of the coastal and global oceans, but their
global distributions remain elusive. Our objective is to develop, test, and validate new algorithms
for using remotely sensed ocean color in optically shallow water. Specifically, we are developing
techniques for using remotely sensed ocean color imagery from the Moderate-Resolution Spectroradiometer
(MODIS) sensor to derive quantitative measures of seagrass biomass (e.g., Leaf area index, rates of
primary production) over broad geographical areas that can be incorporated in global biogeochemical models.
We have investigated two very different carbonate shelves in which seagrasses are typically abundant,
highly productive, and biogeochemically important :
- 1) oligotrophic waters of the Bahamas Banks with
little anthropogenic influences;
- 2) eutrophic waters of Florida Bay and Port St. Joe, FL experiencing high
degree of anthropogenic disturbance.
Field data from these sites are being used to partition
differences in sea spectral reflectance due to the seafloor composition and water column constituents, such as total suspended matter (TSM).
This research is a collaboration with Richard Zimmerman, Old Dominion University, funded by NASA Ocean Biology and Biogeochemistry and NSF Chemical Oceanography.
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