Earth Observation Technology Applied to Coral Reefs

Dear Colleagues,

Earth Observation technology is increasingly playing a key role in the management of coastal and marine biodiversity. In addition to mapping, the technology has been deployed to understand the physiological response of coral reefs to environmental stress, through use of metrics generated using remote sensing derived sea surface temperature and Ocean Color, among other variables. 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. As of 2018, the diversity of Earth Observation instruments has increased ten-fold, including new submeter scale sensors onboard satellites and UAVs. Consequently, there is a need to keep track of the new technological advancements and their applications. Given the disciplinary gap between the biologists/ecologists, coral reef managers and Earth Observation scientists, improved interactions between coral reefs biologists, conservation managers and scientists mapping, modelling and monitoring reefs, is critical to link knowledge and applications to provide the same level of operational mapping and monitoring as terrestrial plant ecology.

Papers in this 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 coral and biogenic 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. Papers on Earth-Observation-derived Essential Ocean Variables (EoVs) are also encouraged. 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. Selected 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. Papers that cover the use of Earth Observation technology in supporting management decisions on coral reefs are also encouraged.

Manuscript Submission Information

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. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short 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 thoroughly refereed through a single-blind 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 semimonthly 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 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Coral Reefs
• Earth Observation Technology
• Ocean Color
• Essential Ocean variables (EOV’s)
• Essential Biodiversity variables (EBV’s)
• primary production
• calibration and validation
• (bio) physical processes
• Scaling
• Mapping
• Decision support
• Coral Bleaching
• Nutrient and Sediment Pollution