Detecting the Spatial Distribution of Artemia at Urmiea Lake
M. Ahadnejad Reveshty
University of Zanjan, Dept. of Geography
Email: mo_ahadnejad@yahoo.com
Abstract
Urmia Lake is the largest permanent lake in Iran, ranking as the second most saline lake in the world after the Dead Sea. Due to high salinity of Urmia Lake Artemia is the only aquatic organism living there. The specie of Artemia at Urmia Lake is unique so it is named as Artemia Urmiana.
Considering the Artemia’s nutritious values it is called as salt water shrimp which may be considered as a valuable food resource for domestic animals, poultry as well as man in future. Such issue may play an important role for water resources management in local as well as regional scale for sustainable development. Artemia distribution in Urmia Lake is mainly influenced by its breeding time, salinity of water and phytoplankton concentration as main constituent of nutrients for aquatics.
Multi-spectral satellite data facilitates detection of this aquatic organism based on their unique spectral reflectance. In this study image processing techniques have been employed using Landsat TM data to enhance Artemia distribution in Urmia Lake. The result of study reveals that the Artemia distributed mostly in southern and western part of Urmia Lake as well as the endurances of fresh water rivers and partially along coastal zones.