Citation:

Nestlerode, J. AND E. Hinchey-Malloy. Clear as mud: Using sediment profile imaging (SPI) to evaluate soft-bottom habitats in Lake Erie. CERF'2019, Mobile, Alabama, November 03 - 07, 2019.

Impact/Purpose:

This is an invited presentation to the CERF 2019 conference session "Mud, Macrofauna and Microbes: an Ode to Benthos III (session 2143)", organized to identify and fill knowledge gaps concerning ecology of benthic sediment habitats in coastal and estuarine systems, including the Great Lakes.

Description:

Sediment profile imaging (SPI) offers an in situ view of the sediment–water interface and subsurface features in sediments, yielding both quantitative and qualitative data on the biological, chemical, and physical character of the sediments. Since the development of the SPI approach in the early 1970s, the majority of sediment profile work has been performed in marine or estuarine habitats. In marine environments, the information in these images is used to estimate benthic community successional stages, ecosystem function, and habitat quality. We present a brief overview of this tool, the image-based multimetric indices used to assess benthic condition, and discuss the utility in developing SPI-based indices of benthic habitat quality specific to freshwater systems. Results of SPI surveys conducted in 2018 and 2019 in Lake Ontario and Lake Erie as part of the Great Lakes Cooperative Science and Monitoring Initiative (CSMI) will be presented. This remote sensing approach, being rapid and comparatively inexpensive in both deployment and data analysis, has promise as a tool for scientists and managers to efficiently evaluate soft bottom habitats in freshwater systems at fine spatial scales.

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