Oceans Group Part 2

Kelp Forest Ecology

Ocean Color Remote Sensing & Kelp versus
other water targets
Example student projects from SARP

KELP
FORESTS

Descriptive Ecology

Kelp (Brown Algae)

Brown Algae (Phaeophyta)
1000 species, almost all
marine
Includes Sargassum, Padina,
kelps
Most common in cold,
temperate seas
Two pigments for
photosynthesis:
1) Chlorophylls a and c
2) Fucoxanthin (brown color)

Distribution

Kelp forests - Where do they occur?

Worldwide Kelp (Laminariales) Distribution

They grow in cold nutrient rich waters

Laminaria

Macrocystis
and Nereocystis

Macrocystis
and Lessonia

Ecklonia and
Macrocystis
Macrocystis, Ecklonia and Laminaria
From: Steneck et al. 2002

Distribution

Santa Cruz

Giant kelps range

~1450 km

Asuncin

Distribution

Laminaria
Pterygophora

Kelps worldwide

Nereocystis

Macrocystis

Ecklonia

Productivity

Two sources of productivity

Macrophyte production
- bathed in nutrients
- second fastest growing plant
on earth
- constant production / loss of
blades (leaves)
- fed on directly by grazing snails
and crustaceans
- blades litter reef to create
detritus food chain
Plankton Influx
- phytoplankton, holoplankton,
meroplankton
- great abundance and diversity of
planktivores

Productivity

Kelp forests vs terrestrial forests

Morphology

Kelp: Division Phaeophyta (Brown Algae)

Parts of a kelp
Gas-filled
pneumatocysts
Rootlike holdfast to
attach to substrate
Long hollow stem or
stipe
Leaflike blades
Complex life cycle

Kelp forests come and go

1982-83 El Nio

Wave Action

Abiotic Factors

Biotic Factors

Competition for space

Biotic Factors

Sea urchins graze on kelp

grazers

Biotic Factors

Sea otters control urchin

populations by eating them

Otters- cute killers

Kelp Forest Communities

Kelp forest ecosystems

Habitat structure
- surface canopy

- subcanopy

- turf

Giant kelp communities

Juvenile finfish

Invertebrates

Understory algae

Invertebrates
Adult finfish

Marine mammals

we stopped for about 20 minutes and watched a dead young Minke Whale being
eaten by a large White Shark, a very large adult Blue Shark (haven't seen a big
one in over a decade), and a smaller White Shark. There was a 21 ft. Wilson
commercial boat filming underwater with a Go Pro on a pole next to us. The
large female white shark did the usual investigating, rubbing, and pushing the
smaller vessel followed by eating - she would circle our 47 ft. vessel, then go
over to investigate the 21 ft. vessel.

Algae can be single celled,

chains of cells,
or larger macrophytes

R. Kudela

R. Jester

Chlorophyll a emits red light when

excited with blue or red light !

Fluorescence Line Height (FLH)

Water absorbs strongly beyond about 700 nm, so the IR is cut offplants (and algae)
absorb strongly in the blue, producing a green peakfluorescence adds MORE light in
the red (~700 nm), and increases with increasing biomass.

Passive
Fluorescence
detected by
satellites
can be used to
identify
phytoplankton
biomass

Santa Cruz

Average during extreme bloom season

(August November)
Image Courtesy John Ryan, MBARI

Kelp the trees of the ocean (we can use

land-based spectral analysis!)

Red Edge

Kelp biomass
was accurately estimated
from satellite observations

Analysis: Isla Vista

Isla Vista shows a high distribution of medium to high density habitat

in the 7-14m depth range and a comparably high distribution of low
density kelp in the 0-7m range
The kelp forest area is somewhat protected by the point off to the
west, which may buffer some of the current and wave energy acting
on the shallow forest, preventing higher densities of kelp due to
lower nutrient flow
There is a sizeable gap of what appears to be viable kelp recruitment
area, which could be explained by an area of non-suitable substrate
or urchin activity, further data would be needed to conclude

Casey Zakroff, SARP 10

Whole Bed Productivity Results

Method

Bed Productivity
(g DW/day)

Empirical Remote Sensing

Method

3.0978 x 106

Depth-Integrated Model
with Subsurface and Age
Composition

3.1282 x 107

PAR Attenuation Model

5.0501 x 107

PUR Attenuation Model

3.9851 x 107

Effects of Tissue Variation

All Mature Kelp

9.25 x 106 g C/day

Tissue Variation

8.27 x 106 g C/day

Percent Decrease

10.59%

Samantha Trumbo, SARP 12

High

Low

Modeled Surface Reflectance at Increasing Depths

HydroLight
: 0.05m Kelp
: 0.1m Kelp
: 0.2m Kelp
: 0.3m Kelp

James Allen, SARP 12

: 0.4m Kelp
: 0.5m Kelp
: 1m Kelp
: Blue Water

Pan-sharpening MASTER with DCS

MASTER

DCS

Pan-sharpened MASTER

Rachel Gertl, SARP 10

Spatial Metrics
DCS

Pan-sharpened MASTER

MASTER

DCS

Pan-sharpened
MASTER

MASTER

Number of clusters

728

465

150

Total Area (m2)

112,718

170,819

242,534

Dispersion (ArcGIS)

0.64

0.46

0.73

Dispersion
(Fragstats)

8.529

4.1502

21.8642

Aggregation Index
(Fragstats)

93.4999

95.4708

85.6932
Rachel Gertl, SARP 10

Radiative Transfer Equation

1z
z 1 E
1z

1
L(z;x) = L(0; x )exp - c(z' ' )dz'' + L* (z' ;x ) +
S(z' ; x) exp - c(z' ' )d
mc(z' )

m0
0 m
m z'

Beer-Lambert Law
E=E0 e-kz

bbw + bbp
Lu
Rrs (l ) @
= constant
Ed
aw + aph + adm + bbw + bbp

Optical Observations at Sea

Diatoms
Dinoflagellates
Haptophytes
Cryptophytes
Chlorophytes
Cyanophytes
UPCE

Extending PHYDOTax to Depth

RGB image of
Monterey Bay during
a red tide event
COAST 2006, 9/05

Kimee Moore, SARP 13

Modeled Spectral shifts

573nm

688 or
701nm

0.1
0.09
0.08

Rrs

0.5 m

0.07

3m

0.06
0.05
0.04
0.03
0.02
0.01
0
500

Kimee Moore, SARP 13

600

700

Wavelength (nm)

800

900

Remote Sensing Estimates of Red Tide Depth

Surface (0-3m)

Depth (7.5m)

All depths
R: dinoflagellates at 0-3m
G: dinoflagellates at 7.5m
B: open water
White is clouds

Kimee Moore, SARP 13 / Noah Tuchow, SARP 14

Explanation for Curve Shape

No motion
(blue water)

Slow speed

A little faster

Past critical speed

Brent Nicklas, SARP 12

March July 2012 time series captures

non-algal bloom to algal bloom conditions

pCO2

<- Source/Sink ->

Sink/source code written to express

pCO2 values > 395 ppm as a source
and pCO2 values < 395 ppm as a sink

Yellow = Source (+)

Green = Sink (-)

16-week time series once a week 8-day composite

Jacey Wipf, SARP 12

There are known knowns. These are

things we know that we know. There
are known unknowns. That is to say,
there are things that we know we
don't know. But there are also
unknown unknowns.
There are things we don't know we
don't know.

Donald Rumsfeld

I want to detect viruses!

Siera Martinez, SARP 14

Viral Lysogeny as a Potential

Mechanism for Termination of
a Red Tide Event

Detecting Cyanobacteria
Application with MASTER
Kelly Lake, July 22, 2009

Pinto Lake, July 22, 2009

SLH (sr^-1)

UCSB Lagoon, June 30, 2011

SLH (sr^-1)

SLH (sr^-1)

Application with HICO

Pinto Lake
HyspIRI Meeting 2014

Kelly Lake
Daid Austerberry, SARP 11

Challenge: two optically similar species

Aphanizomenon flos-aquae

Microcystis spp.

Emma Accorsi, SARP 12

The Miracle of Spectral Shape Algorithms

Remote Sensing of Environment, 2015

Remote Sensing of Environment, 2015

Remote Sensing of Environment, 2015

Methods: Handling Cloud Cover

DINEOF
Data interpolation
empirical orthogonal
function
Inputs
Time series of spatial
chlorophyll data
Spatial landmask data
Optional cloudmask
data for user crossvalidation
Jimmy OShea, SARP 11

Clouds Suck.
Satellite coverage is sufficient for
annual and inter-annual patterns but
does not capture event-scale blooms
Frolov et al. 2013

Predicted Particulate Domoic Acid, May-August 2007

Data Interpolating of EOFs (DINEOF)

Statistical reconstruction of
satellite data solving spatial and
temporal EOFs simultaneously
Can use covariance-matrices to
solve for multiple linked datasets
SST: R^2=0.9, RMSE < 1C, as good
as Pathfinder AVHRR but daily!
Blue: MODISA DINEOF
Red: NDBC Buoy

2007 SST Reconstruction (daily)

NDBC 46054 West Santa Barbara)

Forecasting Pseudo-nitzschia
Original log(CHL) DINEOF log(CHL) Forecast log(CHL)
For each forecast timestep, CHL, Rrs, SST, and
Salinity is estimated
(CHL shown @ right)

Each 5-day interval was

forecast with 6 months
of historical data and
compared to the
nowcast (@ right)

Red: Cell Counts

Blue: Nowcast
Green: 5 day Forecast

Tesia Forstner SARP 14

Tess Fortner SARP 14

Tess Fortner SARP 14

MODIS Aqua Spectra

versus Measured Toxin

Blue: 28 ng/L domoic acid

Orange: 2083 ng/L
Red: 2978 ng/L
Chlorophyll:
Blue = 11.07
Orange =1.43
Red = 1.88