High-resolution Lidar Observations of Rookery Islands in the Upper Laguna Madre to Define a Monitoring Benchmark

Summary

The Harte Research Institute at Texas A&M University-Corpus Christi will obtain airborne light detection and ranging (Lidar) survey of islands within the Upper Laguna Madre and provide analyses of rookery island vulnerability. The survey will target the chain of islands near the JFK causeway and along the Intracoastal Waterway from Corpus Christi bay south to the land bridge below Baffin Bay. This project will provide baseline topographic data for resource managers to effectively characterize nesting habitat of the rookery islands.