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Determining seagrass abundance in southern New England waters using high resolution Landsat 8 imagery-Preliminary Results from Summer 2018
Citation:
Keith, D., Philip Colarusso, S. Rego, M. Tedesco, AND G. Thursby. Determining seagrass abundance in southern New England waters using high resolution Landsat 8 imagery-Preliminary Results from Summer 2018. EPA Region 1 Zosterapalooza XXVIII, Boston, Massachusetts, March 27, 2019.
Impact/Purpose:
The purpose of this project is to determine if satellite remote sensing can be used in southern New England waters to estimate seagrass distribution, abundance (biomass), and primary production. This level of detail has not been attainable by other remote sensing techniques used for seagrass surveys, such as aerial photography or hydroacoustic sensors (i.e., sidescan sonar). Natural resource managers value this detailed information as it provides insight to the relative health of the seagrass meadows.
Description:
Seagrasses have long been recognized as a habitat providing many important ecological services. Thus, this habitat is afforded protection under the federal Clean Water Act and many state Wetlands Protections Acts. Local, state and federal government natural resource managers are always in need of seagrass data for decision making but are limited by available funding and expertise. Most states have established seagrass mapping programs that generally collect data on seagrass distribution, but the techniques involved are inefficient cost-wise and the frequency of data collection varies greatly by state. These programs are not designed, nor have the capability of collecting more detailed seagrass abundance data, which is also of great interest to natural resource managers. This situation results in big data gaps that under represent seagrass distribution and limit interpretation of water quality events influencing eelgrass habitat. Currently, resource managers must rely on dive surveys to generate this seagrass abundance data. This study will assess the ability of satellite remote sensing data to accurately estimate seagrass distribution and abundance in temperate coastal waters. This approach could provide a consistent, cost effective alternative for resource managers to gather seagrass abundance data and manage this valuable resource.