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WETLANDS
/ COASTAL ZONE
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Title
|
Mangroves
and fisheries: are there links between coastal habitat and fisheries production? |
| People
|
Fiona
Manson, Stuart Phinn, Neil Loneragan, Greg Skilleter, Clive McAlpine |
| Funding
source |
CRC
for Coastal Zone, Estuary and Waterway Management |
| Time
period |
2000
- 2004 |
Abstract
|
The
juvenile stages of many commercially and recreationally important species
of fish and invertebrates use mangroves as nursery habitats and this has
led to the paradigm that mangroves are critical for the survival of many
fish and invertebrate species. In some fisheries (e.g. banana prawns) a
link between the extent of mangroves and the catch in adjacent fisheries
has been suggested. However, the mechanisms that account for this link are
uncertain. I review the literature and data on the underlying physical and
biological processes which may explain these linkages, and use these to
develop a conceptual framework for the links between mangroves and fisheries
production. This framework will be used to assess the evidence for the links
between mangroves and fisheries in Moreton Bay and the Fitzroy River, and
will provide a basis for the design of future fisheries and mangrove monitoring
systems. |
| Contact |
Fiona
Manson |
|
|
|
Title
|
Lyngbya
mapping and monitoring |
| People |
Chris
Roelfsema, Stuart Phinn and Bill Dennison |
| Funding
source |
Healthywaterways
partnership, CRC for Coastal Zone, Estuary and Waterway Management |
| Time
period |
2000
- 2003 |
Abstract
 |
Recent
major blooms of Lyngbya majuscula have occurred in an isolated section of
Queensland, covering significant areas of dugong and turtle feeding grounds.
Lyngbya majuscula is a toxic cyanobacteria that is found attached to: seagrass,
algae and coral, or in a floating form. The toxic and smothering nature
of the Lyngbya majuscula has significantly impacted both human and ecosystem
health. An accurate and cost effective means to regularly map the extent
of the bloom is necessary to understand its dynamics and to have a warning
system for the community. Since Remote Sensing seems to be an obvious answer
to monitor the bloom this project is studying its potential. Field reflectance
spectra of Lyngbya majuscula and its associated substrate types are being
analysed if it is possible to differentiate them at different optical water
column properties and when using different sensors. Imagery is collected
and together with collected field data about the bloom extent used to study
image classification possibilities and quality. An operational approach
integrating field video survey and classified Landsat ETM data has been
designed and is now implemented by local Marine Parks personnel for monitoring
the extent of Lyngbya majuscula blooms in Moreton Bay |
| Contact |
Chris
Roelfsema |
|
|
|
Title
|
Spatial
Analysis of Catchment Characteristics Relating to Water Quality using GIS
and Remote Sensing |
| People
|
Josh
Rapp, Stuart Phinn |
| Funding
source |
CRC
for Coastal Zone, Estuary and Waterway Management |
| Time
period |
2000
- 2002 |
Abstract
|
Declining
water and sediment quality due to inappropriate catchment land-use practices
is a major issue in the Australian coastal zone. Advances in GIS, remote
sensing and spatial analysis are providing opportunities to assess the cumulative
impact of broad scale changes in land-use and land-use spatial patterns
on hydrological and ecological processes, and associated water resources.
This project examines the relationships between various catchment characteristics
and water quality in several coastal catchments of south east Queensland,
using GIS and remote sensing. Based on the empirical relationships found,
the project assesses the utility of measures of land-use patterns based
on remote sensing as indicators of water quality, furthering the integration
of causal factors into environmental monitoring frameworks for coastal zones. |
| Contact |
Josh
Rapp |
|
|
|
Title
|
Floodplain
and Wetlands Mapping |
| People
|
Stuart
Phinn,
Greg Hill, Carl Menges, Renee Bartolo (Northern Territory University) |
| Funding
source |
ARC
Industry Linkage Grant; NASA-Jet Propulsion Laboratory; Northern Territory
Department of Lands, Planning and Environment |
| Time
period |
2000
- 2002 |
|
Abstract
|
The goal
of this project is to develop and test an operational procedure for integrating
high spatial resolution image data with moderate to coarse spatial resolution
optical and synthetic aperture radar data for monitoring wetlands in wet-dry
tropical regions, such as northern Australia. Due to the cloudy environmental
conditions, the use of satellite optical data has been limited in the
tropics. For such areas, the advent of airborne and satellite based radar
data sets offer unique opportunities to develop broad resource level mapping
and management techniques. Scientists from NTU, UQ and NASA JPL will collaborate
to develop and apply data fusion techniques for wetland mapping in the
Mary River Floodplain, Northern Territory Australia. This will include
mapping vegetation composition, invasive species and structural biomass
estimates. An intensive field and airborne image acquisition was conducted
in late 2000 to collect field, AirSAR polarimetric/DEM data, MASTER hyperspectral
and ADAR airborne multispectral data. To date the project has achieved
the following goals:
1. To develop
a methodology for determining an appropriate data scale by establishing
relationships between the environmental indicators in the field with high
spatial resolution image data sets. This provides the basis for using
the image data to "extrapolate" the relationships over a larger area and
produce a map indicating the spatial distribution and magnitude of key
environmental variables such as vegetation structure, canopy cover, tree
height and LAI.
2. To develop
an approach to integrate the fine-scale data based relationships into
coarser scale optical data sets, in association with a mean to fuse optical
and SAR data sets.
|
| Contact |
Stuart
Phinn |
|
|
|
Title
|
Development
of remote sensing applications for mapping and monitoring the biological
and physical condition (ecosystem health and function) of Moreton Bay, Port
Curtis and the Fitzroy Estuary |
| People
|
Stuart
Phinn, Chris Roelfsema, Josh Rapp, Jon Knight and Fiona Manson
Arnold Dekker, Alex Held, Vittorio Brando, Alan Marks, Paul Daniel and Janet
Anstee (CSIRO Land and Water) |
| Funding
source |
Cooperative
Research Centre for Coastal Zone, Estuaries and Waterways Management |
| Time
period |
2000
- 2003 |
|
Abstract
|
The majority
of remote sensing of the coastal zone in Australia has not explicitly
linked the scales (spatial and temporal) and type of selected data to
the specific requirements of environmental monitoring and management agencies.
Traditionally, methods of characterizing and mapping coastal habitats
and monitoring the near-shore water quality have been done using boat-based
surveys and area-interpolation of these point measurements. For large
areas and embayments, this is a very expensive exercise and can often
be inaccurate, depending on the interpolation methodology used. The variety
of remotely sensed data types available for commercial use will increase
by at least 300% in the next five years, leading to a diverse range of
imaging products, each with specific environmental and scale applications.
There will be a wide range of data types available, and these should be
matched explicitly with the environments they are suited to and processing
techniques capable of providing reliable estimates of biophysical properties
in coastal environments. These data sets will play a critical role in
enabling the "scaling-up" of field based sampling and models to cover
larger areas and provide input and calibration/validation for models related
to estuarine/embayment dynamics, water quality and benthic flora/fauna.
This project has focused on four main applications:
1. Determining
spatial information needs of coastal zone management agencies in the Moreton
Bay, Port Curtis and the Fitzroy Estuary areas, and linking these to available
or potential remotely sensed information and data;
2. Development
of inherent/apparent optical property databases for each area to enable
quantitative extraction of biophysical properties from airborne and satellite
image data sets (CASI, MASTER, Hyperion, Landsat, MODIS, MERIS);
3. Development
and operational transfer (to a government agency)of a mapping and monitoring
program for the toxic algae, Lyngbya majuscula, in Moreton Bay; and
4. Development
of algorithms for mapping and monitoring in-water (turbidity, chlorophyll,
algal blooms) and bethic substrates.
|
| Contact |
Stuart
Phinn |
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