Remote Sensing of Blue Carbon in the Northeastern US Tidal Marshes

Keywords: remote sensing, blue carbon, tidal marshes
Abstract Type: Virtual Paper Abstract

Abstract

Tidal wetlands are productive ecosystems serving as large reservoirs of soil organic carbon (SOC). Mapping soil organic carbon at tidal wetlands provides a significant means to quantify coastal carbon sequestration. In the past, remote sensing based SOC mapping often relies on its relationship to above ground biomass. This study presents two approaches to map soil organic carbon in Northeastern US: Lidar based geomorphic method and optical remote sensing based water index method. The former uses 1 meter resolution Lidar data and the latter uses 20 meter sentinel-2 imagery. Both methods are developed based on extensive field sampling of soil cores across 13 sites. Factors controlling the SOC spatial distribution are thoroughly considered in this estimating model, including tidal conditions, tidal range, and inundation duration at both seasonal and daily temporal scales. Both methods are able to model SOC across northeastern sites with R2 at the range of 0.5 to 0.65. This project delivers a full coverage of high resolution blue carbon data product in the Northeastern US.