Abstract
ABSTRACT We present the first seabed map of the shallow-water areas of Lampione, the islet of the Pelagie Islands Marine Protected Area (Sicily Channel, Italy). The seafloor was mapped from the coast to a depth of about 75 m, using high-resolution multibeam systems (both for bathymetry and backscatter) along with ground-truth data in the form of grab samples and ROV video-observations. By integrating these original data, a first seabed classification was produced through the use of the Remote Sensing Object Based Image Analysis, a semi-automatic segmentation approach. The resulting 1: 5.000 scale map includes sediment types and habitat distribution contributing to the knowledge of the peculiar marine ecosystem observed at Lampione. In particular, the map provides the first indication of the wide occurrence of rhodolith/maërl habitats at Lampione, which are among the most important ecosystems in the Mediterranean Sea.
Highlights
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are left in their natural state to preserve biodiversity and protected species (De Luca et al, 2018) and play a key role in the promotion of the suitable use of marine resources and ecological conservation (Agardy, 1994)
The Pelagie Islands Marine Protected Area (Sicily Channel, southern Mediterranean), characterized by different geological features associated with specific biological communities, launched a project to assess the conservation status and map the distribution of Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile meadows and coralligenous habitat (Innangi et al, 2018; Tonielli et al, 2016)
Backscatter data presented cannot be compared with absolute values reported in other studies, as in De Falco et al (2010), but this kind of data is used in a relative way for semi-automated acoustic seabed classification, being locally calibrated with groundtruth information
Summary
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are left in their natural state to preserve biodiversity and protected species (De Luca et al, 2018) and play a key role in the promotion of the suitable use of marine resources and ecological conservation (Agardy, 1994). Guidetti et al, 2008; Pieraccini, Coppa, & De Lucia, 2016) In this context, The Pelagie Islands Marine Protected Area (Sicily Channel, southern Mediterranean), characterized by different geological features associated with specific biological communities, launched a project to assess the conservation status and map the distribution of Posidonia oceanica (L.) Delile meadows and coralligenous habitat (Innangi et al, 2018; Tonielli et al, 2016). This tool is an object-image analysis application integrated into ESRI’s ArcMap GIS, as an objective and quantitative method to interpret geophysical data images (acoustic backscatter mosaic and bathymetric data), to infer physical, geological and biological proprieties of the
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