Time to knit · 2000 · 71 citations · 0 references
In order to monitor changes caused by local and global human actions to a coral reef ecosystem, we «sea-truthed» a natural color Landsat Thematic Mapper (TM) image prepared for a coastal region of the northwestern Dominican Republic and recorded average water depth, precise geographical positions, and bottom types (seagrass, is sites; coral reef, ten sites; and sand, six sites). There were no significant differences in depth for the bottom type groups. The depths ranged from 0 to 16.1 m (0 to 52.7 ft). Sand > seagrass > coral in mean Landsat digital counts (proportional to radiance) for the three Landsat TM visible bands (TM 1, TM 2, TM 3); sand bottom sites had significantly greater digital counts than seagrass and coral sites in TM 1 only.