HCNSO Student Theses and Dissertations
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Defense Date
11-2013
Document Type
Thesis - NSU Access Only
Degree Name
M.S. Marine Biology
Department
Oceanographic Center
First Advisor
Eric J. Hochberg
Second Advisor
Samuel J. Purkis
Third Advisor
Bernhard M. Riegl
Abstract
The fundamental components of a coral reef are coral, algae, and sand. At its simplest assessing the status of a coral reef may be reduced to quantifying the relative benthic cover of these three bottom-types. While in situ surveys can provide an accurate census on an individual reef scale (10s of meters), the only feasible method to surveys coral reefs on a reef tract (10-100s of kilometers) or worldwide scale is through the use of remote sensing. Remote sensing is a means of surveying entire ecosystems. A major issue in remote sensing of coastal environments is the confounding effects of the water column on the signal emerging from the water column. We used a simulation method to model differing levels of environmental parameters, which occur in marine ecosystems, with HydrolightEcolight 5. Simulated data were interpolated with actual bottom; type spectra to determine the accuracy of a classification function developed in MATLAB. The aim was to distinguish bottom-types as well as predict levels of water column parameters. The results of this study demonstrate that bottom-type (78% algae, 84% coral, and 94% sand) and chlorophyll concentration (85-90% across range) are well determined, while depth and suspended sediment load are not as well predicted (<70%) and has a tendency to slightly over predict depth.
NSUWorks Citation
Christopher Lapointe. 2013. Modeling Environmental Limitations on Remote Sensing of Coral Reef Ecosystems. Master's thesis. Nova Southeastern University. Retrieved from NSUWorks, Oceanographic Center. (161)
https://nsuworks.nova.edu/occ_stuetd/161.