The Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute is asking local and federal agencies for permission to use small research unmanned aircraft to map and monitor seagrass beds.
Paul Carlson, the research scientist leading the project, has several reasons for wanting to conduct the research along Levy County’s coastline. Among his top reasons are that the area is home to a portion of one of Florida’s two largest, contiguous seagrass beds.
Also, Carlson said Cedar Key has an airport that is close to the area being studied and has minimal air traffic during weekdays, when the work is scheduled.
The Levy County Commission has already given its approval to the project, and the Cedar Key City Commission will be asked to approve the plan on Ocober 18. If the city gives the project a thumbs up, the next stop for state researchers will be the Federal Aviation Administration. “Once all the approvals are completed, we can begin — hopefully deploying for a week in April and another in November,” said Carlson.
Carlson’s plan is to have two of the unmanned aircraft fly — one at a time — in grid patterns over the seagrass beds while he and others work on the water.
“We will be measuring growth rate of the seagrass and looking at how it corresponds to the images” captured by the drones, Carlson said.
The project is intended to help determine if using the drones is cost-effective and more accurate than previous methods. Carlson said the technology that will be used to evaluate the seagrasses is far superior to what a human eye can detect.
The aircraft will “carry specialized cameras that measure light reflected from the seagrass beds from deep blue to far red,” Carlson said. “Instead of three bands of colour — red, blue, green — the camera sensor will detect 128 bands. Although the human eye cannot see the subtle differences between the colours, the camera sensor can.”
About Florida’s 2.2 million acres of seagrass
Seagrasses are marine flowering plants adapted to grow and reproduce in the underwater environment. Florida estuaries and nearshore coastal waters contain the nation’s largest seagrass resources, as well as its two most extensive, contiguous seagrass beds, Florida Bay and the Big Bend region. Factors that affect the establishment and growth of seagrass include light availability, water temperature, salinity, sediment composition, nutrient levels, wave energy and tidal range. Seagrass most often occurs in areas of low to moderate current velocities where the water is clear, thereby allowing sunlight to penetrate to the leaf blades. Hundreds to thousands of species of flora and fauna may inhabit seagrass habitats. Seagrasses also stabilize sediments and help maintain water clarity. (Source: Fish and Wildlife Research Institute)
Source: Ocala