Use of underwater videography and still imagery for sponge biodiversity habitat mapping and modelling (9th World Sponge Conference, Fremantle WA, 2013 Abstract)  

Authors / CoAuthors

Carroll, A.G. | Tran, M. | Przeslawski, R.

Abstract

Understanding the distribution and abundance of sponges and their associated benthic habitats is of paramount importance for the establishment and monitoring of marine reserves. Benthic sleds or trawls can collect specimens for taxonomic and genetic research, but these sampling methods can be too qualititative for many ecological analyses and too destructive for monitoring purposes. Advances in the use of underwater videography and still imagery for biodiversity habitat mapping and modelling have been used within Geoscience Australia to extract data related to sponge biodiversity patterns across three regions. In the new Oceanic Shoals Commonwealth Marine Reserve, sponge morphologies were characterized from still images to locate areas in which biodiversity may be high due to habitat-forming taxa. In the Carnarvon Shelf abundance of a target sponge (Cinachyrella sp.) was quantified from video to investigate relationships between biology and sediment characteristics. Around Lord Howe Island, benthic habitats are being analysed to the national standard of classification using both video and still images. Importantly specialists within ecology, geophysics and spatial statistics work together to integrate biological and physical data to provide unique and meaningful maps of predicted distributions and habitat suitability for key ecological benthic habitats.

Product Type

nonGeographicDataset

eCat Id

75455

Contact for the resource

Keywords

• External Publication

( Theme )

• marine

( Theme )

• NERP

Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classification (ANZSRC)

• Earth Sciences

• Published_Internal

Publication Date

2013-01-01T00:00:00

Creation Date

Security Constraints

Australian Government Security ClassificationSystem    

Classification - unclassified

Legal Constraints

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence    

Access - restricted

Use - license

Status

Purpose

Maintenance Information

unknown

Topic Category

geoscientificInformation

Series Information

Lineage

Unknown

Parent Information

Extents

Reference System

Spatial Resolution

Service Information

Associations

Downloads and Links

Source Information

Source data not available.