Bay Scale Assessment of Eelgrass Beds Using Sidescan and Video - Bouctouche

Bay Scale Assessment of Eelgrass Beds Using Sidescan and Video - Bouctouche The assessment of the status of eelgrass (Zostera marina) beds at the bay-scale in turbid, shallow estuaries is problematic. The bay-scale assessment (i.e., tens of km) of eelgrass beds usually involves remote sensing methods such as aerial photography or satellite imagery. These methods can fail if the water column is turbid, as is the case for many shallow estuaries on Canada’s eastern seaboard. A novel towfish package was developed for the bay-scale assessment of eelgrass beds irrespective of water column turbidity. The towfish consisted of an underwater video camera with scaling lasers, sidescan sonar and a transponder-based positioning system. The towfish was deployed along predetermined transects in three northern New Brunswick estuaries. Maps were created of eelgrass cover and health (epiphyte load) and ancillary bottom features such as benthic algal growth, bacterial mats (Beggiatoa) and oysters. All three estuaries had accumulations of material reminiscent of the oomycete Leptomitus, although it was not positively identified in our study. Tabusintac held the most extensive eelgrass beds of the best health. Cocagne had the lowest scores for eelgrass health, while Bouctouche was slightly better. The towfish method proved to be cost effective and useful for the bay-scale assessment of eelgrass beds to sub-meter precision in real time. Cite this data as: Vandermeulen H. Data of: Bay Scale Assessment of Eelgrass Beds Using Sidescan and Video - Bouctouche. Published: November 2017. Coastal Ecosystems Science Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Dartmouth, N.S. https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/b4c83cd2-20f2-47d8-8614-08c1c44c9d8c 2023-07-11 Fisheries and Oceans Canada DFO.CESDDataRequest-DSECDemandededonnes.MPO@dfo-mpo.gc.ca Nature and EnvironmentMarine Spatial PlanningOceans Bay-scale assessment of eelgrass beds using sidescan and videoHTML https://hmr.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1007/s10152-014-0412-5 Data DictionaryCSV https://pacgis01.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/FGPPublic/Bay_Scale_Assessment_Eelgrass_Beds_Sidescan_Video_Bouctouche/Bouctouche_DataDictionary.csv Bay-scale assessment of eelgrass beds using sidescan and videoFGDB/GDB https://pacgis01.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/FGPPublic/Bay_Scale_Assessment_Eelgrass_Beds_Sidescan_Video_Bouctouche/Bouctouche.gdb.zip Bay-scale assessment of eelgrass beds using sidescan and videoTIFF https://pacgis01.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/FGPPublic/Bay_Scale_Assessment_Eelgrass_Beds_Sidescan_Video_Bouctouche/Bouctouche_TIFF.zip Bay-scale assessment of eelgrass beds using sidescan and videoESRI REST https://gisp.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/arcgis/rest/services/FGP/Bay_Scale_Assessment_Eelgrass_Beds_Sidescan_Video_Bouctouche/MapServer Bay-scale assessment of eelgrass beds using sidescan and videoESRI REST https://gisp.dfo-mpo.gc.ca/arcgis/rest/services/FGP/Bay_Scale_Assessment_Eelgrass_Beds_Sidescan_Video_Bouctouche_fr/MapServer

The assessment of the status of eelgrass (Zostera marina) beds at the bay-scale in turbid, shallow estuaries is problematic. The bay-scale assessment (i.e., tens of km) of eelgrass beds usually involves remote sensing methods such as aerial photography or satellite imagery. These methods can fail if the water column is turbid, as is the case for many shallow estuaries on Canada’s eastern seaboard. A novel towfish package was developed for the bay-scale assessment of eelgrass beds irrespective of water column turbidity. The towfish consisted of an underwater video camera with scaling lasers, sidescan sonar and a transponder-based positioning system. The towfish was deployed along predetermined transects in three northern New Brunswick estuaries. Maps were created of eelgrass cover and health (epiphyte load) and ancillary bottom features such as benthic algal growth, bacterial mats (Beggiatoa) and oysters. All three estuaries had accumulations of material reminiscent of the oomycete Leptomitus, although it was not positively identified in our study. Tabusintac held the most extensive eelgrass beds of the best health. Cocagne had the lowest scores for eelgrass health, while Bouctouche was slightly better. The towfish method proved to be cost effective and useful for the bay-scale assessment of eelgrass beds to sub-meter precision in real time.

Cite this data as: Vandermeulen H. Data of: Bay Scale Assessment of Eelgrass Beds Using Sidescan and Video - Bouctouche. Published: November 2017. Coastal Ecosystems Science Division, Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Dartmouth, N.S. https://open.canada.ca/data/en/dataset/b4c83cd2-20f2-47d8-8614-08c1c44c9d8c

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Contact Information

Delivery Point: Bedford Institute of Oceanography, 1 Challenger Drive, PO Box 1006

City: Dartmouth

Administrative Area: Nova Scotia

Postal Code: B2Y 4A2

Country: Canada

Electronic Mail Address: DFO.CESDDataRequest-DSECDemandededonnes.MPO@dfo-mpo.gc.ca

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