Analysis of the Coral Reef Evolution Based on Satellite Remote Sensing Images

2013 ◽  
Vol 333-335 ◽  
pp. 1719-1723
Author(s):  
Ming Xiao Xie ◽  
Yin Cai ◽  
Meng Guo Li

Based on analysis of the ETM+ and TM remote sensing images of LandSAT satellites, the stability and evolution characteristics of the nearshore coral reefs at Changjiang, China was investigated. The results showed that the maximum distance from the outside edge of the coral reefs to the shoreline is 1.1km, and the corresponding minimum distance is 200m. From 1973 to 2013, the locations of coral reef chain are relatively stable with maximum variation 50m. Generally, the natural tidal currents and waves can not destroy the coral reefs, and the human activities do not change the biological environment of the coastal area. Therefore, the Changjiang coral reefs could keep stable in the long term.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 1903
Author(s):  
Zhihui Li ◽  
Jiaxin Liu ◽  
Yang Yang ◽  
Jing Zhang

Objects in satellite remote sensing image sequences often have large deformations, and the stereo matching of this kind of image is so difficult that the matching rate generally drops. A disparity refinement method is needed to correct and fill the disparity. A method for disparity refinement based on the results of plane segmentation is proposed in this paper. The plane segmentation algorithm includes two steps: Initial segmentation based on mean-shift and alpha-expansion-based energy minimization. According to the results of plane segmentation and fitting, the disparity is refined by filling missed matching regions and removing outliers. The experimental results showed that the proposed plane segmentation method could not only accurately fit the plane in the presence of noise but also approximate the surface by plane combination. After the proposed plane segmentation method was applied to the disparity refinement of remote sensing images, many missed matches were filled, and the elevation errors were reduced. This proved that the proposed algorithm was effective. For difficult evaluations resulting from significant variations in remote sensing images of different satellites, the edge matching rate and the edge matching map are proposed as new stereo matching evaluation and analysis tools. Experiment results showed that they were easy to use, intuitive, and effective.


2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence H. De Clippele ◽  
Denise Risch

This study compares the noise levels at the cold-water coral Tisler reef, before and after the closure of the border between Norway and Sweden, which occurred as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Tisler reef is a marine protected area located under a ferry “highway” that connects Norway and Sweden. Cold-water coral reefs are recognised as being important hotspots of both biodiversity and biomass, they function as breeding and nursing grounds for commercially important fish and are essential in providing ecosystem functions. Whilst studies have shown that fishery, ocean warming, and acidification threaten them, the effects of noise pollution on cold-water coral reefs remains unstudied. To study the severity of noise pollution at the Tisler reef, a long-term acoustic recorder was deployed from 29 January 2020 until 26 May 2020. From 15 March COVID-19 lockdown measures stopped passenger vessel traffic between Norway and Sweden. This study found that the overall noise levels were significantly lower after border closure, due to reduced ferry traffic, wind speeds, and sea level height. When comparing the median hourly noise levels of before vs. after border closure, this study measured a significant reduction in the 63–125 Hz 1/3 octave band noise levels of 8.94 ± 0.88 (MAD) dB during the day (07:00:00–19:59:59) and 1.94 ± 0.11 (MAD) dB during the night (20:00:00–06:59:59). Since there was no ferry traffic during the night, the drop in noise levels at night was likely driven by seasonal changes, i.e., the reduction in wind speed and sea level height when transitioning from winter to spring. Taking into account this seasonal effect, it can be deduced that the COVID-19 border closure reduced the noise levels in the 63–125 Hz 1/3 octave bands at the Tisler reef by 7.0 ± 0.99 (MAD) dB during the day. While the contribution of, and changes in biological, weather-related and geophysical sound sources remain to be assessed in more detail, understanding the extent of anthropogenic noise pollution at the Tisler cold-water coral reef is critical to guide effective management to ensure the long-term health and conservation of its ecosystem functions.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Jury ◽  
Keisha Bahr ◽  
Evan Barba ◽  
Russell Brainard ◽  
Annick Cros ◽  
...  

Abstract Coral reefs are among the most sensitive ecosystems affected by ocean acidification and warming, and are predicted to shift from net accreting calcifier-dominated systems to net eroding algal-dominated systems over the coming decades. Here we present a long-term experimental study examining the responses of entire mesocosm coral reef communities to acidification (-0.2 pH units), warming (+ 2°C), and combined future ocean (-0.2 pH, + 2°C) treatments. We show that under future ocean conditions, net calcification rates declined yet remained positive, corals showed reduced abundance yet were not extirpated, and community composition shifted while species richness was maintained. Our results suggest that under Paris Climate Agreement targets, coral reefs could persist in an altered functional state rather than collapse.


2022 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 253
Author(s):  
Qi Wang ◽  
Han Xiao ◽  
Wenzhou Wu ◽  
Fenzhen Su ◽  
Xiuling Zuo ◽  
...  

Active remote sensing technology represented by multi-beam and lidar provides an important approach for the effective acquisition of underwater coral reef geomorphological information. A spatially continuous surface model of coral reef geomorphology reconstructed from active remote sensing datasets can provide important geomorphological parameters for the research of coral reef geomorphological and ecological changes. However, the surface modeling methods commonly used in previous studies, such as ordinary kriging (OK) and natural neighborhood (NN), often represent a “smoothing effect”, which causes the strong spatial variability of coral reefs to be imprecisely reflected by the reconstructed surfaces, thus affecting the accurate calculation of subsequent geomorphological parameters. In this study, a spatial variability modified OK (OK-SVM) method is proposed to reduce the impact of the “smoothing effect” on the high-precision reconstruction of the complex geomorphology of coral reefs. The OK-SVM adopts a collaborative strategy of global parameter transformation, local residual correction, and extremum correction to modify the spatial variability of the reconstructed model, while maintaining high local accuracy. The experimental results show that the OK-SVM has strong robustness to spatial variability modification. This method was applied to the geomorphological reconstruction of the northern area of a coral atoll in the Nansha Islands, South China Sea, and the performance was compared with that of OK and NN. The results show that OK-SVM has higher numerical accuracy and attribute accuracy in detailed morphological fidelity, and is more adaptable in the geomorphological reconstruction of coral reefs with strong spatial variability. This method is relatively reliable for achieving high-precision reconstruction of complex geomorphology of coral reefs from active remote sensing datasets, and has potential to be extended to other geomorphological reconstruction applications.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 3264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuang Li ◽  
Zhongqiu Sun ◽  
Yafei Wang ◽  
Yuxia Wang

Studying urban expansion from a longer-term perspective is of great significance to obtain an in-depth understanding of the process of urbanization. Remote sensing data are mostly selected to investigate the long-term expansion of cities. In this study, we selected the world-class urban agglomeration of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei (BTH) as the study area, and then discussed how to make full use of multi-source, multi-category, and multi-temporal spatial data (old maps and remote sensing images) to study long-term urbanization. Through this study, we addressed three questions: (1) How much has the urban area in BTH expanded in the past 100 years? (2) How did the urban area expand in the past century? (3) What factors or important historical events have changed the development of cities with different functions? By comprehensively using urban spatial data, such as old maps and remote sensing images, geo-referencing them, and extracting built-up area information, a long-term series of urban built-up areas in the BTH region can be obtained. Results show the following: (1) There was clear evidence of dramatic urban expansion in this area, and the total built-up area had increased by 55.585 times, from 126.181 km2 to 7013.832 km2. (2) Continuous outward expansion has always been the main trend, while the compactness of the built-up land within the city is constantly decreasing and the complexity of the city boundary is increasing. (3) Cities in BTH were mostly formed through the construction of city walls during the Ming and Qing dynasties, and the expansion process was mostly highly related to important political events, traffic development, and other factors. In summary, the BTH area, similarly to China and most regions of the world, has experienced rapid urbanization and the history of such ancient cities should be further preserved with the combined use of old maps.


Zootaxa ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 4988 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-218
Author(s):  
JUDITH E. WINSTON ◽  
JEREMY B.C. JACKSON

As part of a long-term ecological study of the cryptic comunity of Jamaican coral reefs carried out by Jeremy B.C. Jackson and associates during the 1970s and early 1980s, collections were made of reef bryozoans found at 14 sites around the island. Space occupied by bryozoans on undercoral surfaces is dominated by relatively few species. However, during scanning electrone microscopy study and monograph preparation a diverse assortment of relatively rare species was discovered. Of the 132 species found, 56%, 74 species (70 cheilostomes and 4 cyclostomes) are new, as are one family (Inversiscaphidae) and 5 genera (Planospinella, Caribaria, Spirocoleopora, Gemellitheca, and Palliocella).  


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