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Report: Underwater videography for benthic assessment and invasive species research
Citation:
Angradi, T., M. Wick, AND M. Pawlowski. Report: Underwater videography for benthic assessment and invasive species research.
Impact/Purpose:
The goal of this paper is to report findings from a UVID survey of the Lake Huron nearshore as part of the 2017 CSMI effort. This report is a summary of findings for Lake Huron from Angradi et al. (submitted to Journal of Great Lakes Research). We focus on detecting presence of two invasive organisms, round goby and Dreissena in UVID. We discuss the application of UVID in the context of assessment for invasive species detection and substrate typing We examine whether there is a difference in UVID content with respect to Dreissena and gobies for down-looking and oblique cameras, a question that is has not been addressed previously for the Great Lakes. We examine some aspects of mussel and goby ecology revealed by UVID survey data, and we discuss our general observations on the use of UVID for benthic work. Our overarching goal is to provide information based on our experiences for scientists working in the Great Lakes using or contemplating using UVID for benthic research and monitoring.
Description:
We used underwater video (UVID) for benthic assessment in the Lake Huron nearshore. The UVID systems featured a carriage that was lowered to the bottom two which a down-looking camera, an oblique camera, and lights were affixed. UVID was effective for detecting the presence of invasive dreissenid mussels and the invasive round goby, Neogobius melanostomus. UVID was effective on all substrates including silt/mud, cobble/gravel, bedrock, and mussel reef. The oblique camera had a larger field of view than the down-looking camera and was better for detecting round goby. At low densities, Dreissena were often cryptic, and the down-looking camera was more efficient than the oblique camera for detecting Dreissena because of the substrate was closer to the camera. The presence of round gobies at video locations was not independent of Dreissena or hard substrates. Dreissena and gobies were more frequently detected than expected due to chance at 10-20 m, and 15-20 m, respectively. The limitations of UVID and additional Great Lakes applications are discussed.