Open tools for benthic habitat mapping: an study of seagrass ("Posidonia oceanica") in the Natural Park of Cabo de Gata, Spain

• Sánchez-Carnero, N. ^[1] ; Espinosa, V. ; Moszynski, M. ^[2] ; Freire, J. ^[1]
  1. [1] Universidade da Coruña

     Universidade da Coruña

     A Coruña, España

     
  2. [2] Gdańsk University of Technology

     Gdańsk University of Technology

     Gdańsk, Polonia

     
• Localización: Tecniacústica 2008: conferencias y comunicaciones de Acústica 2008. V Congreso Ibérico de Acústica y Tecniacustica 2008; 39.º Congreso Español de Acústica. Coímbra, Portugal. octubre, 2008, 2008
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Acoustical methods are nowadays a key tool for an efficient benthic habitat classification, but their cost is still too high for a majority of potential users. We have worked on an open procedure for marine habitat classification, developing an open source software, ECOSONS, that, using the raw data from a scientific echosounder as input, extracts customized output files for statistical analysis, allowing the user to inspect and modify the computational protocols used. A statistical procedure has been also developed to classify benthic habitst from output files of acoustical data and it has been customized for the case of seagrass (Posidonia oceanica) beds. We present here the preliminary results of a benthic habitat mapping exercice in Cabo de Gata, Andalusian coast, SE Spain. Both single-beam and down-looking Side Scan Sonar data were recorded and analyzed. PCA and cluster analyses were carried out to reduce the multidimensionality of the data and to define acoustic groups using directly the energy values recorded by both transducers as input, instead of the traditional methods. Image analyses were performed to measure the height of bottom structures. Final groundtruthing corroborated the correspondence between acoustic groups and benthic habitats.