Remote Sensing of Water Turbidity and Sedimentation in Florida Bay and Biscayne Bay

Project Investigator: Rob Wertz Project Start Date: 1995 End Date: 1999 Proposals Data Metadata Publications Related Links

Summary

This study is using remote sensing to examine resuspension events, the distribution of turbid water and changes in the patterns of water clarity in the Bay.

A decline in water clarity in Florida Bay has been observed following the seagrass dieoffs starting in the late 1980's. Algal blooms and discolored water have been reported in Florida Bay over the last several years and factors such as resuspension of material and nutrients from the bottom have been suggested as a cause. Monthly monitoring programs by Florida International University (FIU) and Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) have provided documentation of blooms through chlorophyll measurements. This study is using remote sensing to examine resuspension events, the distribution of turbid water and changes in the patterns of water clarity in the Bay.

The project is conducting comparisons between chlorophyll values collected from the shipboard monitoring programs and pre-cruise reflectances to assess whether there is a link between resuspension events and algal blooms. The next stage in the project is to expand the AVHRR data set backward to before the seagrass dieoffs and to incorporate Landsat data for limited high resolution analysis.

Proposals

• 1998
• 1999

Data

• Florida Bay Satellite Imagery

Metadata

• Remote Sensing of Water Turbidity and Sedimentation and Their Relationship to Algal Blooms (project metadata)

Publications

Abstracts

• Detection of Seagrass Cover and Water Clarity in Florida Bay and the Keys (from the Florida Bay and Adjacent Marine Systems Science Conference, November, 1999)
• Remote Sensing of Water Turbidity and Sedimentation and Their Relationship to Algal Blooms (from the Florida Bay Science Conference Proceedings, 1996)
• Remote Sensing of Water Turbidity and Sedimentation in Florida Bay (from the Florida Bay Science Conference Proceedings, 1995)
• Temporal and Spatial Change in Coastal Ecosystems Using Remote Sensing: Example with Florida Bay Emphasizing AVHRR

CDROMs

• Florida Bay AVHRR Time Series CD-ROM (from the NOAA website)

Fact Sheets

• Remote Sensing of Turbidity and Sedimentation

Papers

• The Use of AVHRR Satellite Data for Estimating Spatially Varying Critical Wind Stress in Florida Bay (from the Journal of Coastal Research)

Related Links

• Eastern Gulf of Mexico Satellite Imagery
• Florida Bay Satellite Imagery