Effects Of Sediment Microfabric on Benthic Optical Properties

My long term goal is to examine how inorganic factors, such as differences in sediment character or packing, contribute to the reflectance, scattering, and fluoresence of incident light at the seabed in coastal environments. Of particular interest is the degree to which the water column light field is sensitive to inorganic changes in bottom type, and whether such changes can be described in simple mathematical models. Ultimately, my intention is to apply this work to the identification of seabed sediment characteristics utilizing remote sensing platforms, such as hyperspectral satellite and airborne imagery.