Detecting patterns of change in benthic habitats by acoustic remote sensing

Abstract

MEPS Marine Ecology Progress Series Contact the journal Facebook Twitter RSS Mailing List Subscribe to our mailing list via Mailchimp HomeLatest VolumeAbout the JournalEditorsTheme Sections MEPS 477:1-13 (2013) - DOI: https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10264 FEATURE ARTICLE Detecting patterns of change in benthic habitats by acoustic remote sensing A. Rattray1, D. Ierodiaconou1,*, J. Monk1, V. L. Versace2, L. J. B. Laurenson1 1School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, and 2University Department of Rural Health, Deakin University, Greater Green Triangle, Warrnambool, Victoria 3280, Australia *Corresponding author. Email: iero@deakin.edu.au ABSTRACT: Changes in benthic habitats occur as a result of natural variation or human-induced processes. It is important to understand natural fine-scale inter-annual patterns of change to separate these signals from patterns of long-term change. Describing change from an acoustic remote sensing standpoint has been facilitated by the recent availability of full coverage swath acoustic datasets, but is limited by cost pressures associated with multiple surveys of the same area. We studied the use of landscape transition analysis as a means to differentiate seemingly random patterns of habitat change from systematic signals of habitat transition at a shallow (10 to 50 m depth) 18 km2 site on the temperate Australian continental shelf in 2006 and 2007. Supervised classifications for each year were accomplished using independently collected high-resolution swath acoustic and video reference data. Of the 4 representative biotic classes considered, signals of directional systematic changes occurred between a kelp-dominated class, a sessile invertebrate-dominated class and a mixed class of kelp and sessile invertebrates. We provide a detailed analysis of the components of the traditional change detection cross tabulation matrix, allowing identification of the strongest signals of systematic habitat transitions. Identifying patterns of habitat change is an important first step toward understanding the processes that drive them. KEY WORDS: Multibeam sonar · Kelp · Video · Monitoring · Habitat mapping Full text in pdf format Information about this Feature Article NextCite this article as: Rattray A, Ierodiaconou D, Monk J, Versace VL, Laurenson LJB (2013) Detecting patterns of change in benthic habitats by acoustic remote sensing. Mar Ecol Prog Ser 477:1-13. https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10264 Export citation RSS - Facebook - Tweet - linkedIn Cited by Published in MEPS Vol. 477. Online publication date: March 12, 2013 Print ISSN: 0171-8630; Online ISSN: 1616-1599 Copyright © 2013 Inter-Research.