Subsurface Remote Sensing of Kelp Forests

James Allen University of Tennessee at Martin

Professor - Raphael Kudela Mentor - Sherry Palacios

One of the Most Productive Ecosystems in the World

Commercially Important Fisheries

How is kelp surveyed today?

Diver Surveys

Episodic Costly Low Spatial Coverage

Satellite Sensors
Large swaths of area Good temporal data

Need in situ data Limited depth

Focus Area

Current Methods: Normalized Difference Vegetation Index

(NIR-Red)/(NIR+Red)
(Cavanaugh et al, 2010)

Canopy

vs.

Subsurface

How can Remote Sensing be Improved?

Explore methods to extract subsurface data
Can be used to better estimate productivity

Identify better formulas for vegetation indices specific to marine environments Higher spatial and spectral resolution
Especially in the visible bands

Research Objectives
Better constrain surface and subsurface estimates of kelp biomass
1. Develop Marine Vegetation Index (MVI) 2. Develop spectral library to identify kelp at various depths

Compare both to the commonly used NDVI

Methods
Image FLAASH Georeference Mask Subset

Original

FLAASH

In situ Spectral Analysis of Kelp

ASD

Modeled Surface Reflectance at Increasing Depths

HydroLight
: 0.05m Kelp : 0.1m Kelp : 0.2m Kelp : 0.3m Kelp : 0.4m Kelp : 0.5m Kelp : 1m Kelp : Blue Water

Evaluating Potential MVI

10.593% 23.409% 22.493% more 3.531% 2.092% 2.572% 0.392% less 7.411%

706/648 746/580 798/462 798/544

NDVI

0.663 km kelp

Spectral Angle Mapping

0.05m Kelp 0.1m Kelp 0.2m Kelp 0.3m Kelp 0.4m Kelp 0.5m Kelp 1m Kelp Blue Water

NDVI

Summary
Optimizing calculations of kelp ecosystems is needed Two algorithms were developed that show promise in identifying sub-surface features Comparisons to standard practices show improvement

Future Direction
Are there better band ratios? Could this system be applied to other vegetation types (e.g. seagrass, dinoflagellates)? Can we combine this with a productivity model?

Acknowledgements
Raphael Kudela Sherry Palacios Shane Grigsby Rick Pasetto NASA Airborne Science Program NSERC NASA Ames Rick Shetter Dr. Emily Schaller Eric Buzay Jeffrey Myers Dennis Gearhart Roseanne Dominguez Anthony Hearst Chris Goyne

References
Images
http://phycology.mlml.calstate.edu/our-group/michael-graham/grahamresearch http://regulus-starnotes.blogspot.com http://www.wunderground.com http://www.oceanlight.com http://fc06.deviantart.net

Studies
Cavanaugh, K., D. Siegel, B. Kinlan, and D. Reed, 2010: Scaling giant kelp field measurements to regional scales using satellite observations. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 403, 13-27. Deysher, L., 1993: Evaluation of remote sensing techniques for monitoring giant kelp populations. Hydrobiologia, 260, 307-312. Stekoll, M., L. Deysher, M. Hess, 2006: A remote sensing approach to estimating harvestable kelp biomass. Journal of Applied Phycology, 18, 323-334.