Remote Sensing of Water Turbidity and Sedimentation and Their Relationship to Algal Blooms

Algal blooms and discolored water have been reported in Florida Bay over the last several years and factors such as resuspension of material and nutrients from the bottom have been suggested as a cause. Monthly monitoring programs by Florida International University (FIU) and Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) have provided documentation of blooms through chlorophyll measurements.

This study is using remote sensing to examine resuspension events, the distribution of turbid water and changes in the patterns of water clarity in the Bay. The project is conducting comparisons between chlorophyll values collected from the shipboard monitoring programs and pre-cruise reflectances to assess whether there is a link between resuspension events and algal blooms. The next stage in the project is to expand the AVHRR data set backward to before the seagrass dieoffs and to incorporate Landsat data for limited high resolution analysis.