Publication Date:
2003-01-01
Description:
This paper describes a new, enhanced version of the macrosounding method. It was first introduced over 10 years ago by the author. The purpose was to integrate acoustic data with environmental and biological parameters in a time and space scale, for use in marine-ecosystem analyses. Previous visualizations were replaced in 2002 by a vari-coloured topographical space- or time-based matrix of fish volume-backscattering strength. The matrix is calculated from acoustic measurements, collected during the surveys for each elementary distance unit (ESDU) in standardized slices (depth intervals) of insonified volume (semi-tomography). Each sv visualization is accompanied by a cross-section of the same space unit, which provides a distribution of the selected environmental parameter measured during the same survey. Charts of such parameters are produced with the same procedures as for sv. This presentation of multidisciplinary data greatly improves recognition of time and space gradients. It exposes ecological inter-correlations that are difficult or impossible to estimate by numerical analysis of local diversity of the observed processes. The application of the method is illustrated by examples showing its practical use for data from 1994 to 2000 in the southern Baltic.
Print ISSN:
1054-3139
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9289
Topics:
Biology
,
Geosciences
,
Physics
