Special Issue "Remote Sensing for Understanding Coral Reef Dynamics and Processes: Photo-Systems to Coral Reef Systems"

Guest Editor
Prof. Stuart Phinn
Biophysical Remote Sensing Group, School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, The University of Queensland, Brisbane QLD 4072, Australia
Website: http://www.gpem.uq.edu.au/stuart-phinn
E-Mail: s.phinn@uq.edu.au
Interests: biophysical remote sensing; remote sensing education and training; spatial analysis; statistics and modelling

Guest Editor
Dr. Chris Roelfsema
Biophysical Remote Sensing Group, School of Geography, Planning and Environmental Management, The University of Queensland, Brisbane QLD 4072, Australia
Website: http://www.gpem.uq.edu.au/chris-roelfsema
E-Mail: c.roelfsema@uq.edu.au
Interests: remote sensing of coastal and marine environments; conservation and management of coral reef and seagrass ecosystems; improving marine field calibration and validation approaches of remote sensing imagery

Dear Colleagues,

Although numerous past and current special issues of remote sensing and coral reef journals, along with summary books, have focussed on mapping of coral reefs, few if any have focussed on using remotely sensed data to estimate and understand the dynamics or processes occurring on coral reefs. Measurements of how sun-light is absorbed, scattered and transmitted provides information fundamental to understanding the biophysical structures and processes of coral reefs from molecular (10^-6m) and global (10⁸km) scales. “Remote sensing” covers a range of scales and disciplines from microscopy/micro-analysis to satellite image analysis, and the finer scale knowledge is essential for “scaling up” or mapping and monitoring over large areas. There is a need to improve interactions between coral/algal physiologists and scientists mapping, modelling and monitoring reefs, to link knowledge and applications to provide the same level of operational mapping and monitoring as terrestrial plant ecology.

Papers in the special issue will move on from the starting point of reef mapping and focus on the use of time series or specific field and image data and processing models to estimate and understand biological and physical (hydrodynamic, geomorphic) processes acting on reefs. This will include applications from a range of sensors and scales, spectrometry and fluorometry in laboratory and field; hydro-optical measurements; multi- and hyper-spectral imaging. These may cover a range of environmental variables, including photosynthetic efficiency and concentrations of pigments in corals and algae;; benthic community types; primary production, concentrations of organic in inorganic material in coral reef waters, along with bathymetry, hydrodynamics and geomorphic zones. Select papers will cover integration of variables across scales, as these are essential to enable larger scale measurement and monitoring of processes on coral reefs and their surrounding environments.

Prof. Dr. Stuart Phinn
Dr. Chris Roelfsema
Guest Editors

Submission

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. Papers will be published continuously (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are refereed through a peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Remote Sensing is an international peer-reviewed Open Access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 500 CHF (Swiss Francs). English correction and/or formatting fees of 250 CHF (Swiss Francs) will be charged in certain cases for those articles accepted for publication that require extensive additional formatting and/or English corrections.

• coral reefs
• time series
• models
• ecosystem processes
• hydrodynamics
• primary production
• calibration and validation
• (bio)physical processes
• scaling