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Assessment of chlorophyll-a variations in high- and low-flow seasons in Apalachicola Bay by MODIS 250-m remote sensing

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Abstract

Chlorophyll-a (chl-a) is considered as a primary indicator for water quality and foods for oyster growth in Apalachicola estuarine ecosystem. Assessment of chl-a concentration variation in response to river inflow is important for estuarine environmental research and management. In this study, remote sensing analysis has been conducted to evaluate the effects of river inflow on chlorophyll concentrations in Apalachicola Bay of Florida in the northeast Gulf of Mexico. A remote sensing model for chl-a was improved and applied to map spatial distributions of chl-a by using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) 250-m resolution imageries in high-flow and low-flow seasons in 2001 and 2008. Chl-a values approximately ranged from the minimum 6 μg/l to the maximum 29 μg/l in the study period. Maximum chl-a concentration in high-flow season was almost twice above that in low-flow season. The averaged mean and minimum chl-a level in the high-flow season were approximately 42 and 28 % higher than those in low-flow season, respectively. The remote sensing mapping of chl-a was able to show spatial variations of chl-a in the entire bay under different flow conditions, which indicated its advantage over the traditional field data sampling for monitoring water quality over a large area of estuary. The MODIS 250-m remote sensing regression model presented from this study can be used to support monitoring and assessment of the spatial chl-a distribution in the bay for environmental research and management in Apalachicola Bay.

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Acknowledgments

The study was partially supported by the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering. The study was also partially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 41201338 and 51279134), the Guangdong Science & Technology Plan Key Project (2011B031100003), and Guangdong Province Water Conservancy Science & Technology Innovation Project (2011–20).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, FAMU-FSU College of Engineering, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL, 32310, USA

    Wenrui Huang

  2. Guangdong Open Laboratory of Geospatial Information Technology and Application, Guangzhou Institute of Geography, Guangzhou, 510070, China

    Shuisen Chen

  3. Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

    Wenrui Huang & Shuisen Chen

  4. Department of Geography, Florida State University, Tallahassee, USA

    Xiaojun Yang

  5. School of the Environment, Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, FL, USA

    Elijah Johnson

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  1. Wenrui Huang
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Correspondence to Wenrui Huang.

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Huang, W., Chen, S., Yang, X. et al. Assessment of chlorophyll-a variations in high- and low-flow seasons in Apalachicola Bay by MODIS 250-m remote sensing. Environ Monit Assess 186, 8329–8342 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-014-4007-z

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