Raising Hellbenders: A Remote Sensing Approach to Habitat Restoration
Academic Level at Time of Presentation
Graduate
Major
Earth and Environmental Sciences
List all Project Mentors & Advisor(s)
Haluk Cetin, PhD.; Kate He, PhD
Presentation Format
Poster Presentation
Abstract/Description
Raising Hellbenders: A Remote Sensing Approach to Habitat Restoration
Ozark hellbenders, Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi, are a declining subspecies of large salamanders. Fully aquatic, hellbenders require clean and clear water to sustain healthy populations. Remote sensing was used in this project to map the turbidity of three river systems in Missouri. The control site was the White river system near Branson, Missouri because Ozark hellbenders are already distributed there. The two test sites were the Harry S. Truman Reservoir system and the Lake of the Ozarks system. Landsat 8 OLI and Sentinel-2A images of all three sites were acquired from USGS EarthExplorer. A subset image was created for each original image to minimize free space around the water bodies. Each subset image was classified into two classes of landcover: water; and everything else. The classified images were recoded and ground data collected from USGS and other sources were used to map turbidity. It was hypothesized that the Harry S. Truman Reservoir system and the Lake of the Ozarks system would have higher levels of turbidity than the White River system.
Keywords: hellbender, turbidity, Landsat, Sentinel, habitat restoration, water, sedimentation, chlorophyll content
Fall Scholars Week 2018 Event
Earth and Environmental Sciences Poster Session
Raising Hellbenders: A Remote Sensing Approach to Habitat Restoration
Raising Hellbenders: A Remote Sensing Approach to Habitat Restoration
Ozark hellbenders, Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi, are a declining subspecies of large salamanders. Fully aquatic, hellbenders require clean and clear water to sustain healthy populations. Remote sensing was used in this project to map the turbidity of three river systems in Missouri. The control site was the White river system near Branson, Missouri because Ozark hellbenders are already distributed there. The two test sites were the Harry S. Truman Reservoir system and the Lake of the Ozarks system. Landsat 8 OLI and Sentinel-2A images of all three sites were acquired from USGS EarthExplorer. A subset image was created for each original image to minimize free space around the water bodies. Each subset image was classified into two classes of landcover: water; and everything else. The classified images were recoded and ground data collected from USGS and other sources were used to map turbidity. It was hypothesized that the Harry S. Truman Reservoir system and the Lake of the Ozarks system would have higher levels of turbidity than the White River system.
Keywords: hellbender, turbidity, Landsat, Sentinel, habitat restoration, water, sedimentation, chlorophyll content