Remote Sensing of Kelp Dynamics NASA IDS Meeting 6/4/2007

SPOT Imagery and Kelp Two types of images: 10 m multispectral (4 bands); 5 m panchromatic (b&w) Multispectral Panchromatic

SPOT Imagery Collection Jan 2006-present All of SBC (multispectral and b&w: 18 scenes) every 6-8 weeks Near future Adding Monterrey Bay, Palos Verdes, San Onofre, Pt. Loma Oct 2004-Jan 2006 ~16 multispectral scenes on 4 different dates: 10/04; 11/04; 12/04; 04/05 Majority are of SB coast; no islands

Satellite derived datasets 1.Canopy Cover 2.Biomass

Kelp Canopy Delineation After atmospheric and geometric corrections… Use NIR/green ratio –Pixels of kelp show higher ratios Validated against CDFG 2m aerial NIR survey SPOT 3,2,1 image SPOT 3,2,1 stretched image 3(NIR)/1(green) band ratio Kelp delineation

Satellite Biomass Estimation Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) (NIR-RED) (NIR+RED) Calculated for areas of kelp cover NDVI Transform

NDVI Comparison with LTER SCUBA Measurements Attempting to account for tides/currents on canopy exposure Look at relationship with LAI r 2 = 0.63 p < 1*10 -7 r 2 = 0.51 p < 1*10 -5

Classification Progress Canopy cover for most SB scenes from Oct 2004-Nov 2006 (no islands yet) Need to redo biomass estimations (atmospheric correction problem) Hiring 2 undergraduate imagery classifiers to help clear the imagery backlog…

Next Steps Methods paper for Remote Sensing of the Environment in progress Follow up paper on seasonal and spatial variations in kelp abundance on various scales

Data Management and Distribution to SBC-LTER Currently I have all the raster layers and shapefiles of canopy cover for classified scenes What format to give to SBC-LTER? –Area/biomass per administrative bed