Using ICESat2 data for Coastal Ecosystem Structure Assessment Grant uri icon

abstract

  • Coastal seascapes (seagrasses, mangroves, coral reefs, tidal flats) support livelihoods of over 3 billion people in 100+ countries, billions in revenue; offer protection from extreme weather events; provide 25% of the oceanic carbon pool; support 25% of global biodiversity. Despite their economic and ecological importance, the extent of coastal seascapes, particularly benthic ecosystems such as seagrasses are are poorly quantified. The lack of submerged coastal ecosystem accounting is particularly prevalent in tropical and developing nations, so called ?Big Ocean States? (or Small Island Nations) which do not have the budget to conduct extensive bathymetric surveys but disproportionately depend on coastal resources, such as fisheries and tourism, to sustain their economy. Understanding the spatial patterns of coastal ecosystem structure ? both above and below water (such as ecosystem extent and type, canopy height, biomass, microtopography and bathymetry) is important for a wide range of reasons, including: 1) providing insight into coastal ecosystem functioning and, biogeochemical cycling 2) improving the valuation of ecosystems services provided by the various Blue Carbon ecosystems, 3) estimating emission factors for estimating carbon losses from global changes, including land cover and climate changes 4) validating regional and global economic models, and 5) informing policy and management decisions on , including global terrestrial and ocean conservation, marine protected areas, and restoration initiatives In supporting the urgent need for improved mapping of Blue Carbon, NASA, East Carolina University, the University of Maryland, World Wild Fund-Germany, and the German Aerospace Center (DLR) have made breakthroughs in the monitoring of these ecosystems using Earth Observations from optical, radar, and lidar platforms. The first release of ICESat-2 data has highlighted the potential of ICEsat-2 data to acquire global bathymetric lidar data in shallow (<40m) coastal waters, in addition to vegetation canopy height (Neuenschwander papers). This exiting capability is especially timely for coastal ecosystem studies, where the combination of high capacity cloud computing and global repeat optical data availability from Sentinel-2 and Landsat has, for the first time ever, enabled the large-scale mapping of seagrass beds (Traganos and Reinartz, 2018) and changes in mangrove, mudflats, saltmarsh, and intertidal zone extent (Goldberg submitted, Murray 2018, Australia intertidal zone paper) . Shallow Coastal bathymetry however, has to this day been a crucial missing dataset that not only will improve passive optical bathymetric modeling, but also allow for benthic ecosystem type differentiation (such as seagrass and coral reefs). Our overarching goal is to develop and apply methods for global intertidal and shallow coastal (Blue Carbon ecosystems) structure and carbon stock mapping using the fusion of ICESat-2, Landsat and Sentinel data. More specifically: ? To generate/evaluate ICESat-2 capabilities to estimate ecosystem structure (canopy height and biomass) in inundate coastal wetlands, focused on mangrove canopy height, microtopography, and non-woody vegetation. ? To evaluate ICESat-2 data for informing global seagrass and coral reef mapping efforts by providing additional shallow water bathymetry in the coastal zone. ? To produce coastal zone ecosystem structure (ranging from canopy height to mangrove/seagrass/coral reef maps with associated uncertainty for known sites in Mozambique, Greece, Florida, and North Carolina as a first step towards global characterization of the coastal zone.

date/time interval

  • May 2020 - December 2024