You are here:
Sediment Profile Imagery as a Toll to Assist Benthic Assessment and Benthic Habitat Mapping
Citation:
CICCHETTI, G., J. A. Ranasinghe, AND K. Ritter. Sediment Profile Imagery as a Toll to Assist Benthic Assessment and Benthic Habitat Mapping. Presented at Coastal and Estuarine Research Federation 20th Bieenial Conference: Estuaries and Coasts in a Changing World, Portland, OR, November 01 - 05, 2009.
Impact/Purpose:
This research is a collaboration between the U.S. EPA Atlantic Ecology Division and the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project.to explore the use of sediment profile imagery as a tool to assist environmental management.
Description:
The U.S. EPA Atlantic Ecology Division and the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP) collaborated in 2008 to explore the use of sediment profile imagery as a tool to assist environmental management, capturing multiple images at each of over 100 stations at a variety of locations in southern California. These images show a 15 cm wide profile view of the top 5 - 15 cm of sediment depth, revealing infauna, epifauna, sediment composition, and evidence of faunal activities such as burrows, tubes, tunnels, fecal pellets, and more. Standardized indices can be used to analyze sediment profile images; these indices are species-independent and can be applied to soft-bottom areas worldwide for an initial benthic assessment. However, image-based indices may lack the resolution of well-developed, locally-tuned indices that are based on counts and speciation of fauna. Our data show that imagery can improve environmental management, both through use of image-based indices of condition for environmental assessment, and through use of image-based habitat mapping following the evolving Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS). This standard, which is currently under review by the Federal Geographic Data Committee, defines habitat units to consistently inventory, sample, and map marine areas for management and conservation. Sediment profile imagery provides information for both geological and biological classifications under CMECS. We review advantages and limitations of image-based approaches in assessment and habitat mapping, and we discuss best approaches for using imaging in environmental management. A common goal of the U.S. EPA and SCCWRP is to contribute to a larger framework for benthic bioassessment and habitat mapping that incorporates both faunal and imaging techniques as complementary approaches.