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Towards improved benthic monitoring of the Great Lakes using underwater video
Citation:
Wick, M., M. Pawlowski, AND T. Angradi. Towards improved benthic monitoring of the Great Lakes using underwater video. State Of Lake Huron Conference, Saginaw, MI, October 08 - 11, 2019.
Impact/Purpose:
This presentation will be on interest to benthic researchers in the Great Lakes and elsewhere. The research described here is on the cutting edge of quantitative benthic sampling using underwater video.
Description:
Scientists at the Mid-Continent Ecology Division Laboratory in Duluth have made progress in the use of underwater video for the assessment of benthic conditions in the Laurentian Great lakes, including the nearshore, embayments and connecting channels. Underwater video has several advantages over traditional sampling methods such as PONAR grab samples, as well as some challenges. Underwater video has proven most useful so far in identifying the presence of invasive species, including dreissenid mussels and the round goby and characterizing benthic habitat. Early efforts using oblique-view drop cameras produced poor quality video. More recent effort using stable video carriages that rest on the bottom and deploy better cameras can collect high quality down-looking and oblique video that can be used to identify invasive species, quantitative estimates of abundance and biomass, and even study their autecology. A remaining challenge is developing efficient methods for extracting information from videos.