Abstract
Photographs and maps of the floating canopy of the giant kelp, Macrocystis pyrifera, provide an important data source to monitor nearshore water quality in southern California. Declines in water quality related to turbidity from coastal development, ocean discharges, and non-point source runoff have caused reductions in the areal extent of these kelp beds. Historically the kelp beds have been monitored by a variety of methods including small format infrared and color photography. New digital remote sensing instruments combined with geographical information system (GIS) databases offer an efficient method for collecting and analyzing data on changes in kelp bed size and location. SPOT satellite imagery has been found to provide adequate resolution for mapping the larger beds of giant kelp along the California coast. Beds smaller than 10 ha are not resolved well with SPOT imagery and need to be mapped with a resolution greater than the 20 m pixel size provided by the SPOT multispectral imagery. Imagery from a prototype of the Positive Systems ADAR system, an airplane mounted multispectral video sensor, provided a spatial resolution of 2.3 m in 4 spectral bands. ADAR imagery taken on 2 October 1991 of the San Onofre Kelp Bed in northern San Diego County showed 39% more kelp than small format color infrared photography made during the same time period.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Augenstein, E. A. 1989. Evaluation of SPOT/HRV Data for Kelp Resource Inventories. M.S. Thesis. Geography Department,San Diego State University. 160 pp.
Augenstein, E. A., D. A. Stow & A. S. Hope. 1991. Evaluation of SPOT HRV-XS data for kelp resource inventories. Photogramm. Engin. Remote Sensing 57: 501–509.
Benkelman, C. A., R. H. Behrendt & D. R. Johnson. 1990. The high resolution Airborne Data Acquisition and Registration (ADAR) System. Technical Papers. 1990 ASCM-ASPRS Fall Convention, pp. B25–B33.
Crandall, W. C, 1912. Fertilizer resources of the United States. Appendix N. The kelps of the southern California Coast. U.S. Senate Doc. 190. pp. 209–213.
Jensen, J. R., J. E. Estes & L. Tinney, 1980. Remote sensing techniques for kelp surveys. Photogramm. Engin. Remote Sensing 46: 743–755.
Mouchot, M. C. & T. Belsher, 1991. Utilisation du satellite SPOT pour la cartographie quantitative de Macrocystis pyrifera.Teledection et Gestion des Ressources 7: 257–265.
North, W. J., 1991. The Kelp Beds of San Diego and Orange Counties. Report to the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, 270 pp.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1993 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this paper
Cite this paper
Deysher, L.E. (1993). Evaluation of remote sensing techniques for monitoring giant kelp populations. In: Chapman, A.R.O., Brown, M.T., Lahaye, M. (eds) Fourteenth International Seaweed Symposium. Developments in Hydrobiology, vol 85. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1998-6_37
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-1998-6_37
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-4882-8
Online ISBN: 978-94-011-1998-6
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive