Saccomanno Vienna R.

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Last Name
Saccomanno
First Name
Vienna R.
ORCID
0000-0002-5062-778X

Search Results

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
  • Article
    Using unoccupied aerial vehicles to map and monitor changes in emergent kelp canopy after an ecological regime shift
    (Wiley Open Access, 2022-09-21) Saccomanno, Vienna R. ; Bell, Tom W. ; Pawlak, Camille ; Stanley, Charlotte K. ; Cavanaugh, Katherine C. ; Hohman, Rietta ; Klausmeyer, Kirk R. ; Cavanaugh, Kyle ; Nickels, Abby ; Hewerdine, Waz ; Garza, Corey ; Fleener, Gary ; Gleason, Mary
    Kelp forests are complex underwater habitats that form the foundation of many nearshore marine environments and provide valuable services for coastal communities. Despite their ecological and economic importance, increasingly severe stressors have resulted in declines in kelp abundance in many regions over the past few decades, including the North Coast of California, USA. Given the significant and sustained loss of kelp in this region, management intervention is likely a necessary tool to reset the ecosystem and geospatial data on kelp dynamics are needed to strategically implement restoration projects. Because canopy‐forming kelp forests are distinguishable in aerial imagery, remote sensing is an important tool for documenting changes in canopy area and abundance to meet these data needs. We used small unoccupied aerial vehicles (UAVs) to survey emergent kelp canopy in priority sites along the North Coast in 2019 and 2020 to fill a key data gap for kelp restoration practitioners working at local scales. With over 4,300 hectares surveyed between 2019 and 2020, these surveys represent the two largest marine resource‐focused UAV surveys conducted in California to our knowledge. We present remote sensing methods using UAVs and a repeatable workflow for conducting consistent surveys, creating orthomosaics, georeferencing data, classifying emergent kelp and creating kelp canopy maps that can be used to assess trends in kelp canopy dynamics over space and time. We illustrate the impacts of spatial resolution on emergent kelp canopy classification between different sensors to help practitioners decide which data stream to select when asking restoration and management questions at varying spatial scales. Our results suggest that high spatial resolution data of emergent kelp canopy from UAVs have the potential to advance strategic kelp restoration and adaptive management.Despite their ecological and economic importance, kelp forest abundance has declined in many regions around the world including the North Coast of California. Given the significant loss of kelp in this region, management intervention is likely necessary and remotely sensed data on kelp dynamics can help inform strategic restoration projects. We used unoccupied aerial vehicles (UAVs) to survey emergent kelp canopy along the North Coast in 2019 and 2020 and present remote‐sensing based kelp survey methods using UAVs. Our results suggest that high spatial resolution data on local‐scale spatiotemporal patterns of emergent kelp canopy from UAVs have the potential to advance strategic kelp restoration and adaptive management.
  • Article
    A review of the opportunities and challenges for using remote sensing for management of surface-canopy forming kelps
    (Frontiers Media, 2021-10-20) Cavanaugh, Kyle C. ; Bell, Tom W. ; Costa, Maycira ; Eddy, Norah E. ; Gendall, Lianna ; Gleason, Mary G. ; Hessing-Lewis, Margot ; Martone, Rebecca ; McPherson, Meredith L. ; Pontier, Ondine ; Reshitnyk, Luba ; Beas-Luna, Rodrigo ; Carr, Mark H. ; Caselle, Jennifer E. ; Cavanaugh, Katherine C. ; Flores Miller, Rebecca ; Hamilton, Sara L. ; Heady, Walter N. ; Hirsh, Heidi K. ; Hohman, Rietta ; Lee, Lynn Chi ; Lorda, Julio ; Ray, James ; Reed, Daniel C. ; Saccomanno, Vienna R. ; Schroeder, Sarah B.
    Surface-canopy forming kelps provide the foundation for ecosystems that are ecologically, culturally, and economically important. However, these kelp forests are naturally dynamic systems that are also threatened by a range of global and local pressures. As a result, there is a need for tools that enable managers to reliably track changes in their distribution, abundance, and health in a timely manner. Remote sensing data availability has increased dramatically in recent years and this data represents a valuable tool for monitoring surface-canopy forming kelps. However, the choice of remote sensing data and analytic approach must be properly matched to management objectives and tailored to the physical and biological characteristics of the region of interest. This review identifies remote sensing datasets and analyses best suited to address different management needs and environmental settings using case studies from the west coast of North America. We highlight the importance of integrating different datasets and approaches to facilitate comparisons across regions and promote coordination of management strategies.
  • Article
    CubeSats show persistence of bull kelp refugia amidst a regional collapse in California
    (Elsevier, 2023-03-11) Cavanaugh, Katherine C. ; Cavanaugh, Kyle C. ; Pawlak, Camille C. ; Bell, Tom W. ; Saccomanno, Vienna R.
    Bull kelp populations in northern California declined drastically in response to the 2014–2016 marine heatwave, sea star wasting disease, and subsequently large increases in herbivorous purple urchin populations. Despite the regional kelp forest collapse, there were small, remnant populations where bull kelp was able to survive. Moderate resolution satellites (i.e., Landsat) have been important for creating long-term, large-scale time series of bull kelp forests, however, these have been shown to underestimate or entirely exclude refugia due to their low densities and proximity to the coastline. While measurements from Unoccupied Aerial Vehicles (UAV) are spatially detailed, they are temporally limited and difficult to collect over regional scales. The development of CubeSat constellations has enabled a workaround for these tradeoffs, with global imagery available near-daily at meter-scale.We developed a method for mapping bull kelp canopy across the different sensor cohorts in the PlanetScope constellation. This required correcting surface reflectance measurements to account for differences in the spectral response functions among the sensors and leveraging the temporal frequency of PlanetScope data to increase the automation of classifying kelp canopy in imagery with increased noise. Using the PlanetScope derived kelp canopy extents, we identified locations where bull kelp refugia have persisted in northern California. We found that bull kelp refugia occupied about 2% of the total available habitat in the region and about 9.4% of the average canopy area observed prior to 2014. These areas may be critical to the success of kelp forest re-establishment in northern California, which increases their importance for ongoing monitoring, conservation, and restoration efforts.•Developed the first bull kelp canopy time series from high resolution CubeSat data.•CubeSats can effectively detect kelp canopy at low population abundance and density.•Refugia persisted during historically low kelp abundance in northern California.
  • Article
    Kelpwatch: a new visualization and analysis tool to explore kelp canopy dynamics reveals variable response to and recovery from marine heatwaves
    (Public Library of Science, 2023-03-23) Bell, Tom W. ; Cavanaugh, Kyle C. ; Saccomanno, Vienna R. ; Cavanaugh, Katherine C. ; Houskeeper, Henry F. ; Eddy, Norah ; Schuetzenmeister, Falk ; Rindlaub, Nathaniel ; Gleason, Mary
    Giant kelp and bull kelp forests are increasingly at risk from marine heatwave events, herbivore outbreaks, and the loss or alterations in the behavior of key herbivore predators. The dynamic floating canopy of these kelps is well-suited to study via satellite imagery, which provides high temporal and spatial resolution data of floating kelp canopy across the western United States and Mexico. However, the size and complexity of the satellite image dataset has made ecological analysis difficult for scientists and managers. To increase accessibility of this rich dataset, we created Kelpwatch, a web-based visualization and analysis tool. This tool allows researchers and managers to quantify kelp forest change in response to disturbances, assess historical trends, and allow for effective and actionable kelp forest management. Here, we demonstrate how Kelpwatch can be used to analyze long-term trends in kelp canopy across regions, quantify spatial variability in the response to and recovery from the 2014 to 2016 marine heatwave events, and provide a local analysis of kelp canopy status around the Monterey Peninsula, California. We found that 18.6% of regional sites displayed a significant trend in kelp canopy area over the past 38 years and that there was a latitudinal response to heatwave events for each kelp species. The recovery from heatwave events was more variable across space, with some local areas like Bahía Tortugas in Baja California Sur showing high recovery while kelp canopies around the Monterey Peninsula continued a slow decline and patchy recovery compared to the rest of the Central California region. Kelpwatch provides near real time spatial data and analysis support and makes complex earth observation data actionable for scientists and managers, which can help identify areas for research, monitoring, and management efforts.
  • Other
    Kelp Report Card 2022
    (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2024-06-01) Bell, Tom W. ; Saccomanno, Vienna R.
    The Kelp Report Card is an annual, data-driven evaluation of kelp canopy dynamics in the Northeast Pacific relative to historical trends. This analysis spans the West Coast of the United States through Baja California, Mexico and mobilizes nearly 40 years of Landsat satellite-derived kelp canopy data to provide a summary of 2022 trends in kelp canopy to inform strategic conservation, restoration, management, and research of this important natural resource and ecosystem. The data underlying this report card are publicly available in interactive format on Kelpwatch.org.
  • Other
    Kelp Report Card 2023
    (Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, 2024-06-05) Bell, Tom W. ; Saccomanno, Vienna R.
    The Kelp Report Card is an annual, data-driven evaluation of kelp canopy dynamics in the Northeast Pacific relative to historical trends. This analysis spans the West Coast of the United States through Baja California, Mexico and mobilizes 40 years of Landsat satellite-derived kelp canopy data (Bell et al. 2024) to provide a summary of 2023 trends in kelp canopy to inform strategic conservation, restoration, management, and research of this important natural resource and ecosystem. The data underlying this report card are publicly available in interactive format on Kelpwatch.org.