Title: Confounding effect of coal dust deposits on reflectance properties of oil-

contaminated Rhizophora stylosa

Authors: Laurie Chisholm, Leonie Anderson, Felicity Melville, Rittick Borah, Dianne Jolley

Abstract:

The Port of Gladstone on the central coast of Queensland is a major industrial centre and leading
port within Australia. In January 2006, heavy fuel oil spilled into the Port from the breached hull of a
bulk carrier ship. Field and laboratory investigations were subsequently undertaken to assess the
impact of oil on mangroves, comparing oil-impacted sites to reference sites located outside the oil
spill area. One impact site was found to have significant levels of coal dust deposition from nearby
coal operations. Analysis of high resolution spectral reflectance, and stress indicators chlorophyll
fluorescence (Fv/Fm) and SPAD chlorophyll, were conducted for all mangrove leaves from all sites.
Leaves from the coal-dust affected site were separated into washed and unwashed samples. Initial
comparisons of mean spectral reflectance and stress indicators found significant differences in all
measured parameters between impact and reference sites, but inclusion of the unwashed coal-dust
affected category confounded expected patterns of spectral behaviour. A moving t-test was
calculated between pairs of mean spectral reflectance curves for washed and unwashed categories
to detect gross areas of spectral differences with significant differences (p<0.05) found across the
entire spectral region from 350 – 2500nm. Calculation of percent changes between curves found
that coal dust suppressed the spectral response by 82.90% in the visible (400-700 nm), 77.18 % in
the near-infrared (700-1350 nm) and 43.66% in the mid-infrared (1350-2500 nm) spectral regions.
Significant differences were also found for the respective means of the stress indicators. When
compared to the reference and other impact sites, using washed mean reflectance curves for the
coal-dust affected site resulted in the expected patterns of spectral behaviour observed in many
studies of vegetation stress. It is found that heavy levels of coal dust on leaves can obscure
measurements of spectral reflectance which has significant implications for mangrove assessments
by air- or space-borne means.