{"id":23623,"date":"2018-09-10T15:22:05","date_gmt":"2018-09-10T19:22:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciencescosmaincms.cm.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=23623"},"modified":"2024-08-16T09:41:22","modified_gmt":"2024-08-16T13:41:22","slug":"researchers-receive-1-25-million-grant-to-map-marine-ecosystems-with-drones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/researchers-receive-1-25-million-grant-to-map-marine-ecosystems-with-drones\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers Receive $1.25 Million Grant to Map Marine Ecosystems With Drones"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

UCF assistant professor Timothy Hawthorne will be studying eelgrass health along North America\u2019s Pacific coast.<\/p><\/div>\n

By Rachel Wimmer<\/p>\n

You may soon be able to spot UCF drones collecting data all along the Pacific coast \u2014 from Baja California to Alaska.<\/p>\n

Timothy Hawthorne, assistant professor of GIS in the Department of\u00a0Sociology<\/a>, and his collaborators at the Smithsonian Institution, Cornell University and the University of California-Davis recently received a $1.25 million grant from the National Science Foundation to look at eelgrass health along North America\u2019s Pacific coast.<\/p>\n

Eelgrass is a type of coastal vegetation critical in providing fisheries habitat, controlling erosion, storing carbon and capturing nutrient runoff. Since it plays a crucial role in managing coastal ecosystem health, it can be an important biological indicator of when something is amiss. Marine pathogens, though microscopic, could be unrecognized key species capable of having massive impacts on other species and habitats, such as crabs, herring and steelhead trout.<\/p>\n

This comparative survey will use an interdisciplinary team of researchers to understand what environmental factors play a role in the spread of wasting disease in eelgrass communities from an ecological and geospatial perspective.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I would find most exciting is if the different parts of the project that we have going here allow us to build a model that can really help predict where and when disease is going to be important and contribute to more effective management,\u201d says Emmett Duffy, the Director of Tennenbaum Marine Observatories Network at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s where Hawthorne\u2019s Citizen Science GIS team comes in. The team will work with Smithsonian Marine Global Earth Observatory (MarineGEO) researchers from the Tennenebaum Marine Observatories Network.<\/p>\n

Together, they will use drones to provide high-resolution mapping and imagery of eelgrass communities along the coast.<\/p>\n

GIS, which stands for Geographic Information Systems, is a framework in which data of spatial locations can be collected, managed and analyzed to create layered maps and other visualizations. As part of the GIS Research Cluster, Hawthorne runs\u00a0Citizen Science GIS<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 a research organization working with communities and researchers across the globe to create visualizations of social and environmental inequalities using GIS, maps, apps and drones.<\/p>\n

The sampling they will do for this project will quantify changes in eelgrass extent and habitat quality at a much higher resolution than most satellites can provide.<\/p>\n

One of the more innovative parts of this work is how they will be using the drone to engage with the public.<\/p>\n

Hawthorne and his team will train community partners to operate the drones when the team is unable to be onsite. This kind of citizen science allows for monitoring during specific timeframes, such as during major environmental events.<\/p>\n

Hawthorne\u2019s portion of the grant will provide a new post-doctoral position as well as a number of opportunities for undergraduates in hopes of engaging the next generation of scientists.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really wanted to ensure that we had that representation of the student body to provide them with that first research experience in what\u2019s truly a huge interdisciplinary project,\u201d Hawthorne says. \u201cThey\u2019ll get a lot of hands-on training in drone flying, but more importantly they will get a lot of hands-on training in how to communicate across disciplines and how to then communicate those findings to a general audience, to the public, and to the greater society as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"

Assistant Professor Tim Hawthorne, along with his students, uses a drone to map areas of Belize.<\/p><\/div>\n

Working in partnership with the Smithsonian has Hawthorne excited for future partnerships between UCF, the Smithsonian and other international institutions.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo work with Cornell, UC Davis, the Smithsonian and us at UCF, that\u2019s huge and it speaks to reach and the international presence of UCF and the work that we do at Citizen Science GIS,\u201d Hawthorne says.<\/p>\n

Michael Johnson, dean of the\u00a0College of Sciences<\/a>, is also enthusiastic about this partnership: \u201cThis is a fascinating opportunity to bring Dr. Hawthorne\u2019s expertise in drone mapping and community-based GIS applications \u2014 and his passion for citizen science \u2014 to help sustain ecosystem health in an important region.\u201d<\/p>\n

The grant will fund three years of study; the team hopes to begin field work in early 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one field or no one researcher can solve the challenges related to this global issue,\u201d says Hawthorne. \u201cTo work with these world-renowned scientists in the marine bio world is just incredible. I\u2019m not a biologist by training, so to be a social scientist with expertise that can enhance that team, that\u2019s cool. I don\u2019t think I ever dreamed that was possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

To read the original story, click here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Rachel Wimmer You may soon be able to spot UCF drones collecting data all along the Pacific coast \u2014 from Baja California to Alaska. Timothy Hawthorne, assistant professor of GIS in the Department of\u00a0Sociology, and his collaborators at the Smithsonian Institution, Cornell University and the University of California-Davis recently received a $1.25 million grant […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":133,"featured_media":23624,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[34,38,6,39,13,6492,5944,29],"tags":[736,794,1088,5912,3371,3457,3723],"class_list":["post-23623","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biology-departments","category-breaking-news","category-events","category-faculty-news","category-news","category-sociology-department","category-ucf-coastal","category-ucf-news","tag-college-of-sciences","tag-cos-news","tag-drones","tag-smithsonian-institution","tag-tim-hawthorne","tag-ucf","tag-university-of-central-florida"],"yoast_head":"\nResearchers Receive $1.25 Million Grant to Map Marine Ecosystems With Drones - College of Sciences News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/researchers-receive-1-25-million-grant-to-map-marine-ecosystems-with-drones\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Researchers Receive $1.25 Million Grant to Map Marine Ecosystems With Drones - College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Rachel Wimmer You may soon be able to spot UCF drones collecting data all along the Pacific coast \u2014 from Baja California to Alaska. 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