Costa Rica Oceans
Assessing Changes in Vegetation and Marine Environments at the Isla del Coco Marine Reserve with Satellite Imagery
The Isla del Coco Marine Reserve, located off the coast of Costa Rica, is experiencing several environmental challenges including rising sea surface temperature (SST), coral reef bleaching, coastal erosion, and loss of cloud coverage above its cloud forest. These challenges not only threaten the well-being of vegetation and marine ecosystem, but also the national park's infrastructure. Therefore, this project aimed to provide a better understanding of the problem by conducting time series analysis on changes in vegetation on the island, SST, total suspended sediments (TSS), and biophysical parameters in the surrounding ocean. Satellite data from Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+), Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI), Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), and Medium Resolution Imaging Spectrometer (MERIS) were collected for the period March 2002 to October 2016 to analyze vegetation health and cloud forest coverage and its impact on vegetation. NetCDF data products of SST, remote sensing reflectance, and inherent optical properties were converted to raster and windows representing the study area were applied to extract data for trend analysis. MERIS level 2 products were used in combination with products derived from Sentinel-2 level 1 data to create a time series analysis ranging from 2002 to 2016 for TSS. Results of this project are important for Sistema Nacional de Áreas de Conservación de Costa Rica, Embassy of Costa Rica to the United States, and the Ministry of Environment and Energy-Water Directorate to make informed decisions to protect the marine reserve.
Project Video:
An Ocean Between Us: Monitoring Marine and Vegetation Health on Cocos Island
- Location
- Mobile County Health Department
University of Georgia - Term
- Summer 2017
- Partner(s)
- Sistema Nacional de Áreas de Conservación de Costa Rica, Área de Conservación Marina Isla del Coco (ACMIC) (Costa Rica)
Embassy of Costa Rica to the United States
Ministry of Environment and Energy, Water Directorate (DA-MINAE) (Costa Rica) - NASA Earth Observations
- Landsat 7, ETM+
Landsat 8, OLI
Envisat, MERIS
Sentinel-2, MSI
Aqua, MODIS
Terra, MODIS
POES,m AVHRR - Team
- Dionne Blanks (Project Co-Lead)
Yu Chuan Shan (Project Co-Lead)
Farnaz Bayat
Samantha Darring
Elaina Gonsoroski
Andrew Knight
Manasi Parkhi - Advisor(s)
- Dr. Marguerite Madden (University of Georgia)
Dr. Deepak Mishra (University of Georgia)
Dr. Cedric Fichot (Boston University)
Joe Spruce (Science Systems & Applications, Inc.)