Publication Date:
2003-01-01
Description:
A 150 mile2 (388 km2) area in the South Minch on the Scottish west coast was surveyed acoustically using the seabed discrimination system RoxAnn™. This site was chosen from BGS seabed sediment maps because of the wide variety of substratum types present within a relatively small area. The work presented here investigates different combinations of survey track spacing in relation to interpolation of acoustic data for mapping benthic biodiversity. Three different survey track spacings (4, 2 and 1 km) and three pixel sizes (1000, 500 and 250 m) were utilised. The results indicated considerable variations in the fine scale variations of the substratum maps produced and their accuracy in relation to ground truth data. Depending on the track spacing and level of interpolation utilised, the survey site could be considered relatively important under the UK Biodiversity Action Plan in terms of priority habitat types present or completely insignificant. These variations have serious implications for the use of this technology in site identification, conservation and management.
Print ISSN:
1054-3139
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9289
Topics:
Biology
,
Geosciences
,
Physics
Permalink