Monitoring the Water Quality of Bermuda’s Coral Reefs and Seagrass Beds with NASA Satellites and UW Sensors:
Project context When sand and mud get stirred up in the ocean by either ships or storms, it has a negative affect on the plants and animals that live there. The sand smother and grind into the surface of the plants and animals. Also when up in the water in thick clouds suspended sand blocks the light reaching the sea floor that the plants and animals need to grow or to see. In order to know how the organisms living in the water and on the sea floor are being affected by the amount of sand and other material is suspended in the water, scientists usually go out in boats and measure water clarity and the amount of suspended sediments in sea water. These measures through time are similar to underwater weather reports and tell scientists how healthy the ocean is through time and from place to place. However, new methods and instruments such as remote sensing using satellites, and aerial photography from air planes, have expanded the capacity for studying biological processes, a...