Digital Data in Biodiversity Research Conference

The Calooshatchee River Estuary is a unique ecosystem with watershed that contributes to the Everglades. The river, along with other waterways in southwest Florida, has seen a rise in Harmful Algal Blooms (HAB), a common explanation for this trend is large agricultural practices and water run off from Lake Okeechobee. Through the use of time series analysis of Landsat satellite imagery, this project aims to be an exploratory study to identify other potentially contributing factors that are correlated, directly or inversely, with the presence of HABs by focusing on a few Regions of Interest (ROIs) in the Caloosahatchee River and Lee County Florida. Methods and tools being used include but are not limited to NDVI, reflectance metrics, emissivity metrics, and floating algal index.

The presentation will also include future applications that could contribute to better understanding this area's biodiversity such as sample collection, drone imagery, and structural imaging.