Geology topics

Xu Yuan

Publications and source records attributed to Xu Yuan.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

USGS2026

Short-term estuarine phytoplankton dynamics in response to hurricanes along the Gulf Coast of America: A Variational Autoencoder (VAE) approach with satellite and bio-optical observations

Hurricanes drive diverse estuarine phytoplankton responses and can trigger cascading ecological and physicochemical impacts. Capturing these short-term dynamics requires high spatiotemporal resolution. Here, we applied a globally-applicable coastal ocean color algorithm, Variational Autoencoder (VAE), to Sentinel-2 MSI imagery for chlorophyll- a (Chl- a ) estimation and validated its strong performance across the northern Gulf coast of America (GoA) estuaries, including Galveston Bay (TX), Barataria-Terrebonne Estuary (LA), Apalachicola Estuary (FL) and Tampa Bay (FL). The test set showed strong performance (MAE: 1.44 mg m −3 ; RMSE: 17.7 mg m −3 ; slope: 0.86; median symmetric accuracy: 30.33%). The validated VAE was then applied to 76 Sentinel-2 MSI images to assess phytoplankton biomass responses to hurricanes Harvey (2017), Michael (2018), Ida (2021), Francine (2024), Helene (2024), and Milton (2024) in the GoA estuaries. Results showed that hurricane disturbances on Chl- a typically lasted 3–5 weeks. Estuarine waters west (left) of hurricane tracks showed a rapid decline in Chl- a (∼5 mg m −3 ) due to elevated turbidity from heavy rainfall, and wind-driven flushing in the estuary, followed by a rebound over about two weeks, with Chl- a increasing approximately 10–15 mg m −3 above pre-storm levels. In contrast, right-side waters showed a slower response, likely from oligotrophic seawater intrusion driven by the hurricane's counterclockwise rotation. Post-storm observations showed increased freshwater phytoplankton like chlorophytes and cyanobacteria dominating estuaries, while shelf-waters exhibited elevated dinoflagellates (e.g., Karenia brevis bloom after Hurricane Milton). These results highlight the spatial heterogeneity of hurricane impacts on estuarine phytoplankton dynamics, which may trigger cascading effects on biogeochemical cycling and food webs, potentially prolonging ecosystem recovery.

Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas↗

USGS2026

Hyperspectral retrieval of phytoplankton absorption and community composition from NASA’s PACE-OCI in estuarine–coastal waters using a hybrid framework combining mixture-of-experts and Variational Autoencoder

Retrieving the phytoplankton absorption coefficient (a phy ; m−1), one of the most spectrally rich inherent optical properties, remains challenging in optically complex coastal waters worldwide. Leveraging NASA's new hyperspectral mission, PACE, we introduce Hyper-MoE-VAE, a deep-learning architecture that integrates a Mixture-of-Experts with a Variational Autoencoder to retrieve high-dimensional a phy and subsequent estimation of phytoplankton community composition (PCC) from PACE-OCI hyperspectral remote sensing reflectance (R rs ). Pre-trained on global hyperspectral bio-optical datasets and fine-tuned using regional field R rs –a phy pairings from inland– estuarine–coastal waters, Hyper-MoE-VAE demonstrated strong transferability and effective adaptation across regions. Validation with in-situ Rrs showed accurate aphy retrievals in Lake Erie (NRMSE = 0.12, ε = 17.10), Lake Pontchartrain (NRMSE = 0.11, ε = 37.12), and the Barataria–Terrebonne Estuary (NRMSE = 0.14, ε = 38.89). Using same-day PACE-OCI Level 2 Rrs, the model achieved comparable performance in Lake Erie (NRMSE = 0.19, ε = 55.19), Lake Pontchartrain (NRMSE = 0.14, ε = 51.39), and the Barataria–Terrebonne Estuary (NRMSE = 0.17, ε = 47.92). Hyper-MoE-VAE derived PACE-OCI hyperspectral aphy was further decomposed against mass-specific absorption spectra to estimate group-specific contributions to total chlorophyll a. The resulting PCC showed strong agreement with HPLC–CHEMTAX in Lake Erie ( R 2 = 0.692) and Gulf estuarine–coastal systems ( R 2 = 0.732). Monte Carlo noise experiments further revealed group-dependent sensitivities, with diatoms and dinoflagellates showing moderate susceptibility to noise, while cyanobacteria and cryptophytes exhibited narrow uncertainty distributions. These results demonstrate Hyper-MoE-VAE's capability for regional, operational water-quality monitoring with PACE-OCI and its adaptability to current and future hyperspectral missions.

Great Lakes, Lake Pontchartrain↗