Detection of Microphytobenthos Using Spectral Unmixing Method in the Saemangeum Tidal Flat, Korea

Microphytobenthos that supply nutrients to the intertidal ecosystem play an important part as a primary producer. If we estimate distribution and density of microphytobenthos, we can possibly calculate a volume of primary product in the tidal flat and its effect to the intertidal ecosystem. To estimate the portion of microphytobenthos, we used a linear spectral unmixing (LSU) method. LSU is a tool for inference the proportions of the pure components (or end-members) in a mixed pixel. The selection of end-members is critical to LSU. The end-members can be selected either from spectral libraries built from field surveys or from a remotely sensed image. We compared the two approaches of end-member selection, and the preliminary results showed end-members from from spectral library are as effective as those from image itself.