MSc Thesis Research Proposal 'Seagrass mapping and monitoring along the coast of Crete, Greece'

The seagrasses, a unique group of aquatic plants growing submerged in sea water, create unique, complex, extremely diversified and productive ecological systems in the littoral coastal zones between 0-50 meters in shallow waters all over the world (Hogarth, 2007), and serve as a valuable environmental indicators for the marine ecosystems health. The seagrasses contribute significantly to the balance of littoral ecosystems and are referred to as the “constructors” of ecosystems, being a component of marine ecosystems of high importance. The seagrass Posidonia oceanica (Fig.1) is a key species to inhabit littoral of the Mediterranean Sea and is widely spread along the coasts of Crete (Dumay, 2002). P. oceanica plays an important role in a number of geomorphological and ecological processes such as followings: nutrient recycling through the reducing the degree of water movements and thus providing sediments stability, provision of food for herbivorous fauna as well as helter zones for fish and other marine organisms (Francour et al, 1999). The purpose of this MSc thesis to focus on a seagrass mapping (case study of Posidonia oceanica meadows) along the Cretan coasts, Greece. The current research aims to apply methods of remote sensing and GIS-based spatial analysis for environmental monitoring of marine ecosystems. The technical implementation is based on ENVI, Erdas Imagine and ArcGIS software using broadband RS data.