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Hydro-acoustic remote sensing of benthic biological communities on the shallow South East Australian continental shelf

journal contribution
posted on 2009-09-10, 00:00 authored by Alexander Rattray, Daniel IerodiaconouDaniel Ierodiaconou, Laurie Laurenson, S Burq, M Reston
Information regarding the composition and extent of benthic habitats on the South East Australian continental shelf is limited. In this habitat mapping study, multibeam echosounder (MBES) data are integrated with precisely geo-referenced video ground-truth data to quantify benthic biotic communities at Cape Nelson, Victoria, Australia. Using an automated decision tree classification approach, 5 representative biotic groups defined from video analysis were related to hydro-acoustically derived variables in the Cape Nelson survey area. Using a combination of multibeam bathymetry, backscatter and derivative products produced highest overall accuracy (87%) and kappa statistic (0.83). This study demonstrates that decision tree classifiers are capable of integrating variable data types for mapping distributions of benthic biological assemblages, which are important in maintaining biodiversity and other system services in the marine environment.

History

Journal

Estuarine coastal and shelf science

Volume

84

Issue

2

Pagination

237 - 245

Publisher

Academic Press

Location

New York, N.Y.

ISSN

0272-7714

eISSN

1096-0015

Language

eng

Publication classification

C1 Refereed article in a scholarly journal; C Journal article

Copyright notice

2009, Published by Elsevier Ltd.