The Effects of Sea Level Rise on Vegetative Zones in Morro Bay, California

Jan 2020 - May 2020

Minute elevation changes have been one of the primary predictors of vegetative zonation in salt marsh environments. However, many geographically dependent biotic and abiotic factors lead to site specific interactions. This study aimed to analyze the vegetative patterns based on the topography and elevation at Morro Bay, California. Following, data for prospective levels of sea level rise (SLR) in the Eastern Pacific was projected onto the area to determine what possible vegetation changes may occur.

^ Morro Bay, California

LIDAR data was utilized to determine the topography and elevation of the primary study area. Data was then correlated to an NDVI (normalized difference vegetation index), and SAVI (soil adjusted vegetation index) acquired from processing LANDSAT-8 imagery from 2013 - 2020, and Sentinel-2 imagery from 2018 - 2020.

Topographic analysis indicated that the increase in the bay’s elevational gradient was exponential. It was also found that there was a small, but positive correlation between NDVI and SAVI values and elevation points indicating that the high marsh at Morro Bay was on average more productive.

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Morro Bay salt marsh study area. Vegetation analysis was conducted in the salt marshes within the red hexed area (12.98km^2). The yellow hexed transect was used to interpolate the effects of SLR (2000m x 600m, 1.2km^2). d

DEM generated from LIDAR data for topographic and elevational analysis. --- Since, LANDSAT-8 imagery was at 30m horizontal resolution, a grid of sampling points spaced at 30m distance, horizontally and vertically, to each other were used to sample LANDSAT-8 images ---