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APPLICATION OF 3D COMPUTER-AIDED TOMOGRAPHY TO THE QUANTIFICATION OF MARINE SEDIMENT COMMUNITIES IN POLLUTION GRADIENTS
Citation:
Davey, E W., K T. Perez, J A. Cardin, R Johnson, AND K J. Rocha. APPLICATION OF 3D COMPUTER-AIDED TOMOGRAPHY TO THE QUANTIFICATION OF MARINE SEDIMENT COMMUNITIES IN POLLUTION GRADIENTS. Presented at EPA-OW/OWOW Technology Transfer Conference: Emerging Technologies, Tools, and Techniques to Manage Our Coasts in the 21st Century, Cocoa Beach, FL, January 28-31, 2003.
Description:
Computer-Aided Tomography (CT) has been demonstrated to be a cost efficient tool for the qualitative and quantitative study of estuarine benthic communities along pollution gradients.
Now we have advanced this technology to successfully visualize and discriminate three dimensionally (3D) gas, water, benthic tubes and tunnels, sediment, shell, and rock within sediment cores. Techniques for 3D image rendering were developed which improved quantification methods for two parameters specifically related to the activities of marine benthic macro fauna, the percentage of tube and tunnel volume (PTTV) and the mean sediment X-ray attenuation (SXA). These methods also provided evidence that marine macro benthic activity contributes to the bulk density of sediments which is directly correlated with SXA measurements.
These CT techniques could be an effective management tool to assess and monitor the effects of anthropogenic inputs on marine benthic communities as well as other environments.