NSF Award
1226825
An award made to the University of South Carolina (USC) will enable researchers to deploy an array of instruments capable of measuring and tracking changes in several key physical and environmental conditions of coastal areas. The instrument package will allow researchers at the Baruch Institute Marine Field Laboratory to examine the estuarine environment at a spatial scale that has heretofore been impossible. The package will contain a tethered balloon fitted with hyperspectral, infrared, and video cameras, and a spectrophotometer. Investigators will use the instruments to measure growth and distribution of marsh vegetation, surface temperature, suspended materials in water, water movement, animal distributions, and landscape pattern from tens to hundreds of meters above the surface. A complementary ground-based laser instrument (LIDAR) will provide three-dimensional topographic images and analyses of tidal marshes, mudflats, creeks, beaches, and intertidal oyster reefs. Mapping of repeated measurements will be used to quantify changes and investigate factors affecting marsh elevation, geomorphology, tidal inundation, animal and plant distributions, and physiological states. Coupled with ongoing time-series measurements and process-oriented field experiments, the imaging instruments and LIDAR will be used to address impacts and mechanisms of change due to storms, warming temperatures, persistent droughts, and sea-level rise. The instrument array will be based at the Baruch Marine Field Laboratory in Georgetown County, where USC and visiting investigators have been studying the salt marsh estuary at North Inlet for more than 40 years.<br/><br/>The imaging instrument array will benefit investigators already familiar with the study area, attract first-time visiting scientists, and provide unique opportunities to train graduate and undergraduate students on how to use the technology to address new sets of inter-disciplinary research questions. Images, maps, and other products generated from instrument deployments will be used in summer courses such as the capstone field course offered through USC Marine Science Program and continuing education programs workshops. Products designed for the visiting public and young audiences will be developed in association with the North Inlet- Winyah Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve staff and distributed through the Hobcaw Barony Discovery Center and on-line. Images, data, and products from the tethered array and LIDAR will be available through the Baruch Institute web site at http://www.baruch.sc.edu/.
