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Coral reef benthic productivity based on optical absorptance and light-use efficiency

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Abstract

In the interest of determining productivity across a range of spatial scales (meters to many kilometers) and in different reef environments, this paper proposes a technique for measuring productivity based on remote sensing of optical absorptance and light-use efficiency. The concept is straightforward: gross primary production equals plant-incident irradiance multiplied by plant absorptance multiplied by the plant’s light-use efficiency (GPP = E d Aε). Both E d and A are derivable from various remote sensing data sources, thus the approach is feasible. This paper presents a demonstration of the application for Kaneohe Bay, Oahu, HI based on Quickbird satellite imagery and SHOALS LIDAR data. E d is modeled at every point in the image, and the image itself is inverted to provide A. Organismal-scale ε reported in the literature is taken as a surrogate for community-scale ε. The resulting GPP image compares well with the range of GPP values for reef-flats in general, as well as the distribution and range of GPP for Kaneohe Bay in particular. Though results likely can be improved by using spectral imagery and more accurate values for ε, this concept study demonstrates the tractability of this approach for measuring coral reef GPP.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Gregory P. Asner, Robert C. Carpenter and Stéphane Maritorena for insightful comments early in the drafting of this paper Quickbird image courtesy DigitalGlobe, Inc. This work was funded by NASA award NNG04GO65G and ONR award N00014-06-0867 to E. J. Hochberg. This is SOEST contribution 7151 and HIMB contribution 1285.

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  1. Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, University of Hawaii, P.O. Box 1346, Kaneohe, HI, 96744, USA

    E. J. Hochberg & M. J. Atkinson

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  1. E. J. Hochberg
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  2. M. J. Atkinson
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Correspondence to E. J. Hochberg.

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Communicated by M.P. Lesser.

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Hochberg, E.J., Atkinson, M.J. Coral reef benthic productivity based on optical absorptance and light-use efficiency. Coral Reefs 27, 49–59 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00338-007-0289-8

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