Uniting Remotely Sensed and In Situ Data to Understand Ecosystem Function in Lake Mendota: a GLEON-NASA Collaboration

The use of remotely sensed data to study lake ecosystem function requires relating these data to in situ measurements, like metabolism and the microbial community that drives it. Routine hyperspectral imagery enabling this comparison will be provided globally by the upcoming NASA Surface Biology and Geology mission. However, relatively few studies have verified possible uses of these data over smaller inland waters, in part due to the scarcity of coincident in situ data. We use existing long-term limnological data and team science to address this research gap through a partnership between the Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network and NASA. Our team united expertise from the fields of aquatic science and remote sensing at Lake Mendota, a well-studied eutrophic lake in Madison, WI, USA. We used a range of statistical and modeling techniques to assess relationships between remotely sensed imagery, 16S rRNA microbial data, and modeled metabolic data. We found notable seasonal relationships between multispectral imagery and modeled gross primary productivity (GPP). We also identified microbial community composition as a strong predictor of modeled GPP and respiration. Finally, we related the top principal components from hyperspectral scenes (DESIS, PRISMA, and AVIRIS) to metabolic processes and key microbial groups. Given the growing need for water quality monitoring in inland waters and the increasing availability of hyperspectral data, our study demonstrates how high-resolution remote sensing data can reflect metrics of ecological function and water quality.

Primary Presenter: Caroline Owens, University of California Santa Barbara (carolinehowens@gmail.com)

Authors:

Caroline Owens, University of California, Santa Barbara  (carolinehowens@gmail.com)

Bryan Currinder, University of California, Davis  (bcurrinder@ucdavis.edu)

Adrianna Gorsky, University of Wisconsin-Madison  (agorsky@wisc.edu)

Max Glines, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute  (glinem@rpi.edu)

Elijah Hall, University of Pittsburgh  (edh47@pitt.edu)

Dexter Howard, Virginia Tech  (dwh1998@vt.edu)

Lara Jansen, Portland State University  (ljansen@pdx.edu)

Anna Schmidt, University of Vermont  (Anna.Schmidt@uvm.edu)

Samantha Sharp, University of California, Davis  (ssharp@ucdavis.edu)

Benjamin Poulter, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center  (benjamin.poulter@nasa.gov)

Stephanie Schollaert Uz, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center  (stephanie.uz@nasa.gov)

Paul Hanson, University of Wisconsin-Madison  (pchanson@wisc.edu)

Kathleen Weathers, Cary Institute  (weathersk@caryinstitute.org)