Monitoring of the 2011 Super Algal Bloom in Indian River Lagoon, FL, USA, Using MERIS

Abstract

During the spring of 2011 an unprecedented "Super" algal bloom formed in the Indian River Lagoon (IRL), with Chlorophyll a (Chl a) concentrations over eight times the historical mean in some areas and lasted for seven months across the IRL. The European Space Agency's MEdium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) platform provided multispectral data at 665 and 708 nm, which was used to quantify the phytoplankton Chl a by fluorescence while minimizing the effects of other water column constituents. The three objectives were to: (1) calibrate and validate two Chl a algorithms using all available MERIS data of the IRL from 2002 to 2012; (2) determine the accuracy of the algorithms estimation of Chl a before, during, and after the 2011 super bloom; and (3) map the 2011 algal bloom using the Chl a algorithm that was proven to be effective in other similar estuaries. The chosen algorithm, Normalized Difference Chlorophyll Index (NDCI), was positively correlated with the in-situ measurements, with an R 2 value of 0.798. While there was a significant (62.9 ± 25%) underestimation of Chl a using MERIS NDCI, the underestimation appears to be consistent across the data and mostly in the estimations of lower concentrations, suggesting that a qualitative or ratio analysis is still valid. Analysis of the application of the NDCI processed MERIS data provided additional insights that the in-situ

Field‐Validated Detection of Aureoumbra lagunensis Brown Tide Blooms in the Indian River Lagoon, Florida, Using Sentinel‐3A OLCI and Ground‐Based Hyperspectral Spectroradiometers

“…Prior remote sensing studies of the IRL reconstructed bloom intensity and extent using Chl a as a proxy for biomass. Kamerosky et al (2015) applied the red edge band ratio algorithms of Moses et al (2009) and Mishra & Mishra (2012) to estimate Chl a in the IRL during the 2011 super bloom. The algorithm of Mishra & Mishra (2012) is referred to as the Normalized Chlorophyll Difference Index (NDCI).…”

“…These algorithms were originally devised for Chl a estimation in the Sea of Azov (Moses et al, 2009) and Chesapeake, Delaware, and Mobile Bays and the Mississippi Delta (Mishra and Mishra (2012), all of which are optically complex estuarine or marginal marine environments prone to harmful algal blooms. Kamerosky et al (2015) regionally tuned the algorithms for use in the IRL by calibration with a data set of 50 samples and then validated them using an additional 40 independent samples that were withheld from the calibration analysis. This study compares against their calibration results.…”

“…This results in more frequent HABs during the wet season (Chamberlain & Hayward, 1996). While field sampling research has provided crucial information on the distribution of phytoplankton across the IRL (Phlips et al, 2011), satellite-based remote sensing of the IRL provides a cost-effective way to monitor the impact of nutrient pollution over this relatively large body of water that would otherwise be difficult to characterize using traditional field sampling methods alone (Kamerosky et al, 2015).…”

“…Traditional methods have provided several standard metrics for Chl a estimation (Kamerosky et al, 2015;Witter et al, 2009). Kamerosky et al (2015) applied two Red-NIR remote sensing algorithms to the IRL to estimate Chl a concentration during an event that has been referred to as the 2011 super bloom. The regressions they employed were able to reconstruct on the order of 40 to 70% of the Chl a variance with errors that exceeded 30 (ug/L), indicating considerable optical interference.…”

Spatial and temporal shifts in the diet of the barnacle Amphibalanus eburneus within a subtropical estuary

“…The “superbloom” of a Picocyanobacteria and a Pedinophyceae (both 1-2 μm) sp. in 2011 and blooms of the brown tide Aureoumbra lagunensis (4-5 μm) in 2012, 2013, and the winter of 2016 ( SJRWMD, 2013 ; Phlips et al, 2014 ; Kamerosky, Cho & Morris, 2015 ; Lapointe et al, 2015 ) were particularly devastating within the sublagoons of the northern IRL (NIRL). Although these algal species are all non-toxic, high concentrations of algal cells blocked sunlight from reaching seagrass beds and, ultimately, resulted in hypoxic events that led to fish kills within the NIRL ( Phlips et al, 2014 ).…”