Remote Sensing for Understanding Coral Reef Dynamics and Processes: Photo-Systems to Coral Reef Systems
A special issue of Remote Sensing (ISSN 2072-4292).
Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2012) | Viewed by 71512
Special Issue Editors
Interests: ecological remote sensing; earth observation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
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
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
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
Keywords
- coral reefs
- time series
- models
- ecosystem processes
- hydrodynamics
- primary production
- calibration and validation
- (bio)physical processes
- scaling
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