HyperSpectral Mission over La Parguera Coral Reefs System

The hyperspectral sensor AISA flew over Puerto Rico during December 2007. This first-time ever mission, coordinated by the UPRM CenSSIS project (a NSF project), involved multiple research groups that sampled on sea and land. GERS Lab collaborated with the Bio-optical Oceanography Lab to measured the bio-optical properties on different sites over La Parguera Reefs and Bioluminescence Bay during December 6, 2007. Twelve (12) stations were sampled with the bio-optical rosette and the GER-1500 spectroradiometer. The sampled sites provided different bio-optical conditions in the water column and different benthic communities. Several stations were also sampled with the Satlantic hyperspectral radiometer. This first-time comprehensive study of the bio-optical properties of La Parguera Reef System will establish the basics for further improvement of the remote sensing techniques for monitoring of benthic habitats. All data collected during the AISA mission and other monthly samplings will be incorporated into a Geographic Information System (GIS) using ArcGIS. These layers of information will be published in the internet using the recently created database system called GERSVIEW.

See a detailed report of this sampling >

Large group of graduate students take the advanced course of remote sensing

Thirteen (13) graduate students from several Departments of UPRM successfully finished the course Geol 6225 (Advanced Geological Remote Sensing) during fall of 2007. This is the highest number of students that have taken this course since it was created, and it is also considered a large number for any graduate course at UPRM. The course was taken by 9 females and 4 males from Geology, Civil Engineering, and Electrical and Computing Engineering Departments. Such event coincided with the change of the textbook used in the course. The students used for the first time the textbook entitled "Remote Sensing of the Environment" by John R. Jensen, edition of 2007; which has been fully updated and covers all the topics of the course. The success of this course is based on its applicability to diverse fields and how it is focused on learning the most advanced image processing techniques and tools.

Go to Geol 6225 web page >

GERSVIEW is presented during the 5th ESRI Users Conference in Puerto Rico

William Hernandez presented the new GERS Lab Database, called GERSVIEW, during the fifth conference of ESRI Users in Puerto Rico. This activity took place in Caguas during December 11 of 2007 and it was organized by Geographic Mapping Technologies Corp (GMT). William's presentation along with those given by the Caguas Municipality and the Regulations and Permits Administration of Puerto Rico (Administración de Reglamentos y Permisos-ARPE) were the only ones out of the scope of the GMT work.

See more information of the activity in "GEOAMIGOS de Puerto Rico" web page >

See William's presentation >

Undergraduate students performed outstanding research in Mayaguez Bay

Jose Martinez and Natlee Hernandez presented their undergraduate research to the Geology faculty in November 30, 2007. Jose continued his efforts toward generating a site-specific algorithm for the estimation of suspended sediments and Natlee validated the Chlorophyll-a product provided by MODIS and NASA-standard algorithms, both works in Mayaguez Bay. These projects are part of the research sponsored by NOAA-CREST and are providing excellent data to better develop the appropriate procedures to apply remote sensing in coastal waters. The results of these studies are presented in the following reports:

Development of a Site-Specific Algorithm to Estimate Suspended Sediments using MODIS

Understanding the Dynamics of MODIS Chlorophyll-a in Mayagüez Bay and its Relationship with Suspended Sediments

Mangrove Research is presented in the 26th DNER Symposium

Fernando Gilbes presented the work entitled “Developing a protocol to use remote sensing as a cost effective tool to monitor contamination of mangrove wetlands” during the Annual Symposium of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources (DNER) in October 25, 2007. This project is sponsored by the Sea Grant Program and other authors of the presented work were Johannes H. Schellekens, Augustine Rodriguez-Roman, and Belyneth Deliz.

See the presentation

Go to the official web page of the symposium >

GERS Lab joined the Earth Week Activities at UPRM

During October 19 of 2007 our laboratory participated in the Open House celebrated in the Department of Geology as part of the Earth Week. As in previous years, this activity was organized by the Puerto Rico Seismic Network and it was attended by many high school students and people from our own campus.

See more information and photos of the activity >

GERS Lab participates actively in PRYSIG 2007

During September 28 of 2007 the Center for Hemispherical Cooperation (CoHemis) carried out the fifth national meeting of remote sensing and geographic information systems (PRYSIG 2007). As in previous years, the GERS Lab collaborated with this activity and organized a workshop about hyperspectral image classification using ENVI. It was offered by Fernando Gilbes and around 20 people participated of it. Also this year the new on-line database of the GERS Lab called GERSVIEW was presented for the first time to the community. This presentation was given by its main creator William Hernandez, a Ph.D. student from the Marine Sciences Department and strong collaborator of our lab.

See William's presentation about GERSVIEW>

Go to PRYSIG 2007 web page >

Optical Properties of Coral Reef are measured in collaboration with the Bio-Optical Oceanography Laboratory

In order to apply remote sensing to coral reef studies it is necessary to understand the bio-optical variability of the water column. This is the main objective of the most recent work by the GERS Lab in collaboration with Dr. Roy Armstrong, Director of the Bio-Optical Oceanography Laboratory (BIOL) of the UPRM-Department of Marine Sciences. GERS Lab puts the Bio-Optical Rosette and the BIOL puts the re-designed boat Boriken. Coral reefs of La Parguera will be sampled monthly, starting during summer 2007, as part of our NSF-CenSSIS project. This will help us to develop the appropriate techniques for coral mapping using remote sensing.

International symposium on remote sensing of environment in Costa Rica

Dr. Fernando Gilbes Santaella was invited to chair a technical session about the application of remote sensing in marine ecosystems studies during the 32nd International Symposium on Remote Sensing of the Environment.  This symposium took place in San José, Costa Rica, on June 25-29 of 2007 and over 500 people from around the World attended it. The marine technical session chaired by Dr. Gilbes was focused on coral reefs and algal bloom monitoring.  Five oral talks were presented and three of those were related with research work made in the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez (UPRM).  The first talk was given by Damaris Torres Pullitza, a former graduate student of the UPRM-Department of Geology. Another lecturer in this session was Dr. Liane Guild from NASA Ames Research Center and she presented the collaborative work between NASA and UPRM involved field activities for sensor validation that were made in Puerto Rico by Dr. Guild, Dr. Roy Armstrong from the UPRM-Department of Marine Sciences, and Dr. Gilbes.  The last presentation of the session was offered by Dr. Miguel Vélez Reyes, a professor in the UPRM-Department of Electrical and Computing Engineering.  His talk covered part of Dr. Vélez’s work in the Center for Subsurface Sensing and Imaging Systems (CenSSIS).  All these presentations reflect the large active research taking place at UPRM in environmental remote sensing.

Second Prize for Vilmaliz's poster in NOAA Symposium

The NOAA-CREST program invited Vilmaliz Rodriguez to present a poster in the 4th annual NOAA/NESDIS/StAR/CoRP Symposium, which took place during June 19 & 20 of 2007 at the University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland. Her poster summarized results of spatial and temporal analyses of the bio-optical data collected in Mayagüez Bay. It also included her proposed study of the watershed that will help to better understand land-sea interactions of sediments transport. Vilmaliz's work was very well accepted and her poster won the second place of the symposium.

>See Vilmaliz's Poster         >See Symposium Web page

Bio-optical properties of La Parguera Bioluminescence Bay

Multiple studies have been performed in La Parguera Bioluminescence Bay, but none of them have measured the in situ bio-optical properties until now. As part of Deborah Cedeño Ph.D. dissertation project (a graduate student of the UPRM-Department of Marine Sciences), we used the GERS Lab Bio-Optical Package to measure these properties in the field during May 16 and 18 of 2007. The standard deployment of the package is by profiling mode, but it was changed because the phytoplankton species studied by Debbie are only concentrated closed to the surface. The package was attached to a peristaltic pump that allowed to bring surface water to the CTD, fluorometer, and AC-9, in a continuous flow mode. At the same time, Debbie was collecting her standard samples for laboratory analyses in order to develop comparisons with the package measurements.

Undergraduate research is presented to the Geology Faculty

Yadira Soto and Jose Martinez carried out their undergraduate research in GERS Lab related topics. Yadira in her second research project continued working with the bioluminescence bays of La Parguera and Vieques and produced a Land Use and Land Cover map using a supervised classification of IKONOS images. Yadira's work is related with our project sponsored by Sea Grant. Jose worked in his first research project and was focused in testing MODIS for Mayaguez Bay. He choose a new algorithm developed by Miller and McKee (2004) and the 250 m bands from MODIS to estimate the concentration of Suspended Sediments in the bay. Jose's work is related with our NOAA CREST project. Both Yadira and Jose presented their undergraduate research projects to the faculty of the Geology Department during May 14 and 15 of 2007, respectively.

	Land Use/Land Cover of two bioluminescent bays in Puerto Rico By Yadira Soto Viruet See presentation See report
	Estimation of suspended sediments using MODIS 250 m bands in Mayagüez Bay, Puerto Rico By José F. Martínez Colón See presentation See report

Group of scientists discuss the effect of climate change in Puerto Rico

More than 30 scientists from diverse disciplines, including GERS Lab Director and Oceanographer Fernando Gilbes, met during May 8-10 of 2007 in a San Juan's Hotel to participate in the workshop called "Facing the Consequences of Climate Change in Puerto Rico". This activity was sponsored by the UPRM Chancellor Office and organized by several UPRM organizations, including Marine Science, CoHemis and Sea Grant. The discussions were intense and many issues were presented. During the last day a conference press took place to present the most important findings and 10 recommendations. A final report will be prepared and presented to the government.

Go to more information at UPRM web page >

Yvette Ludeña successfully defends her Master Thesis

The dynamics of cyanobacteria and their role on the optical properties of Mayaguez Bay was the focus of the research performed by Yvette Ludeña Hinojosa, a Peruvian graduate student from the Biology Department and working with Dr. Fernando Gilbes Santaella. Yvette participated in several cruises to the Bay sponsored by NOAA CREST, where she collected samples to better understand these important organisms by using both traditional laboratory procedures and state-of-the-art genetic techniques. Her work is an important legacy to the research of Mayaguez Bay and we expect to publish it in a upcoming book of the bay. She successfully defended her thesis during May 8 of 2007.

See presentation

See Thesis

Innovative sampling design for Mayaguez Bay

As part of the NOAA CREST project a different sampling design was performed in Mayaguez Bay to better understand the spatial variability of bio-optical properties. On May 2 of 2007, the bio-optical package was lying down on deck and connected to the water intake of the R/V Sultana. Seawater from the surface flowed continuously through the different instruments while the boat travel along the Bay from the Añasco to the Guanajibo rivers, and covering from inshore to offshore waters. The graduate students Patrick Reyes, Vilmaliz Rodriguez (both sponsored by NOAA CREST), and Ramon Lopez from Marine Sciences, participated during this cruise that was sponsored by Sea Grant. Patrick collected water for suspended sediments and CDOM measurements, Vilmaliz will be processing the data from the bio-optical package, and Ramon collected data with the FastTracka. This work will provided for the first time a more comprehensive analysis of the spatial variability of the measured parameters, which will help to develop new models and algorithms for coastal waters.

Heavy Metals project is presented at the XI SIGMA Xi Student Poster Day

As in previous years, an undergraduate student from the GERS Lab presented at the Sigma Xi poster day. The activity took place during April 26, 2007 at UPRM-Chemistry Building and this year's poster was prepared by Yadira Soto. She presented the work performed during last semester for her undergraduate research topic and the poster was titled "Heavy Metals Contamination in Two Bioluminescent Bays of Puerto Rico". This work was sponsored by the University of Puerto Rico Sea Grant College Program.

>See Yadira's poster