emSargassum/em Coverage in the Northeastern Gulf of Mexico during 2010 from Landsat and Airborne Observations: Implications for the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill Impact Assessment

Chuanmin Hu, Robert Hardy, Eric Ruder, Amelia Geggel, Lian Feng, Sean Powers, Frank Hernandez, George Graettinger, Jill Bodnar, Trent McDonald

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

<p> <p id="x-x-sp0055"> Using high-resolution airborne measurements and more synoptic coverage of <a title="Learn more about Landsat from ScienceDirect's AI-generated Topic Pages"> Landsat </a> measurements, we estimated the total <em> <a title="Learn more about Sargassum from ScienceDirect's AI-generated Topic Pages"> Sargassum </a> </em> coverage in the northeastern <a title="Learn more about Gulf of Mexico from ScienceDirect's AI-generated Topic Pages"> Gulf of Mexico </a> (NE GOM) during 2010, with the ultimate purpose to infer how much <em> Sargassum </em> might have been in contact with oil from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Mean <em> Sargassum </em> coverage during the four quarters of 2010 for the study region was estimated to range from ~ 3148 &plusmn; 2355 km <sup> 2 </sup> during January&ndash;March to ~ 7584 &plusmn; 2532 km <sup> 2 </sup> during July&ndash;September (95% confidence intervals) while estimated <em> Sargassum </em> coverage within the integrated oil footprint ranged from 1296 &plusmn; 453 km <sup> 2 </sup> (for areas with &gt; 5% thick oil) to 736 &plusmn; 257 km <sup> 2 </sup> (for areas with &gt; 10% thick oil). Similar to previous studies on estimating <em> Sargassum </em> coverage, a direct validation of such estimates is impossible given the heterogeneity and scarcity of <em> Sargassum </em> occurrence. Nonetheless, these estimates provide preliminary information to understand relative <em> Sargassum </em> abundance in the NE GOM. </p></p>
Original languageAmerican English
JournalMarine Pollution Bulletin
Volume107
DOIs
StatePublished - Jan 1 2016

Keywords

  • Sargassum
  • Landsat
  • AVIRIS
  • Gulf of Mexico
  • Deepwater Horizon
  • Remote sensing

Disciplines

  • Life Sciences

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