Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) for mapping marine biodiversity in coastal and shelf waters: Implications for Marine Management  

Authors / CoAuthors

Barrett, N. | Seiler, J. | Anderson, T. | Williams, S. | Nichol, S.

Abstract

Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) have only recently become available as a tool to investigate the biological and physical composition of the seabed utilizing a suite of image capture and high-resolution geophysical tools. In this study we trialled the application of an AUV, integrating AUV image capture with ship-based high resolution multibeam bathymetry, to map benthic habitats and biodiversity in coastal and offshore waters of SE Tasmania. The AUV successfully surveyed a plethora of marine habitats and organisms, including high-relief kelp-dominated rocky reefs to deep mid-shelf reef and sediments that are otherwise difficult to access. To determine the spatial extent of these habitats within a broader-scale context, the AUV surveys were integrated with larger scale multibeam mapping surveys. The data collected using the AUV significantly improved our understanding of the distribution of benthic habitats and marine organisms in this region, with direct application to the management and conservation of these environments. Integrating the AUV data with the largescale mapping data provided the opportunity to quantify the relationships between the biological and physical variables, and to use thise data to develop predictive models of biodiversity across the region.

Product Type

nonGeographicDataset

eCat Id

70317

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Keywords

• External Publication

( Theme )

• marine

( Theme )

• CERF

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

• Earth Sciences

• Published_Internal

Publication Date

2010-01-01T00:00:00

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Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem    

Classification - unclassified

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Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence    

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Use - license

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unknown

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geoscientificInformation

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