Applications of the Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) in a Partially Restored New England Salt Marsh Lagoon

Mittermayr, Agnes; Legare, Bryan; Borrelli, Mark

doi:10.1007/s12237-020-00707-2

Cited by 6 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Greene et al (2018) stated that no acoustic methods existed for mapping SAV in waters less than 1 m with a traditional sidescan. The mapping of SAV in < 1 m with a PMSS was recently completed (LaFrance Bartley et al 2018a;Borrelli et al 2019b;Mittermayr et al 2020a). The co-location of bathymetric and sidescan data increases the efficacy of using PMSS systems for mapping and analysis of eelgrass and other SAV resulting in more efficient use of survey time, decreased processing time, and helps to eliminate sources of uncertainty associated with the co-location of multiple data sets during post-processing (Komatsu et al 2003).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vessel-Based, Shallow Water Mapping with a Phase-Measuring Sidescan Sonar

Borrelli

Smith

Mague

2021

Estuaries and Coasts

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Coastal areas have traditionally been difficult locations to collect consistent, high-resolution bathymetric data via vessel-based acoustic surveys. The use of phase-measuring sidescan sonar is becoming more prevalent, particularly in shallow (< 20 m) coastal waters. Instruments used in the field over the last decade by the lead author are discussed here. This work is intended to serve as an introduction to the coastal scientist interested in the operation, use, and data sets associated with these instruments. Hydrographers unfamiliar with phase-measuring sidescan sonar will also benefit from insights regarding survey planning, data acquisition, and processing. These instruments collect co-located sidescan backscatter and swath bathymetry. The effective bathymetric swath widths can be 2 to 3 times that of multibeam echosounders making phase-measuring sidescan sonars ideal for shallow water mapping operations. These large effective swath widths offset the high levels of noise and processing needed in these bathymetric data sets relative to multibeam data. The sidescan backscatter and bathymetric data sets can be used individually, but the co-location allows for uses and analyses not feasible with other data sets. These instruments are well-suited to collect data for a suite of seafloor mapping projects and science-based investigations. Examples from a wide range of projects are detailed here for the shallow water mapping community and the multi-disciplinary groups who may benefit from the data and insights presented here.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vessel-Based, Shallow Water Mapping with a Phase-Measuring Sidescan Sonar

Borrelli

Smith

Mague

2021

Estuaries and Coasts

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“…Baseline datasets are useful tools to measure future change and to set ecosystem goals against but the objective during this survey, to create a baseline data set, is offset by the anthropogenic disturbance of hydraulic clamming in the area. Ideally an acoustic survey would be performed prior to surveying allowing for appropriate stratification of stations (Mittermayr et al, 2020a) with the caveat that the further away from the impact event the more difficult it will be to capture the broad ranging effects.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Studies of different scales (e.g.10s of kilometers or 10s of meters) may miss the disturbed area due to randomized sampling or may reside entirely within a disturbed area, thus mis-representing local anthropogenic disturbances. Adequate stratification across treatments increases the statistical power of analyses and can be accomplished by post-acoustic survey sampling (Mittermayr et al, 2020a). As the longevity of dredge tracks is site and habitat dependent, there is often little time to spare between dredge events, acoustic survey, and benthic sampling across the disturbance if the extent is unknown.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, high species diversity and abundance may be an indication of colonization by scavengers and predators rather than the natural recovery of the affected species communities (Poirrier et al, 2009;Kennedy and Jacoby, 1999). As the community assemblage changes over time (post-disturbance), disturbed and undisturbed areas may continue to differ due to natural biotic and abiotic factors (Mittermayr et al, 2020a). If the initial stress is intense enough or becomes chronic and the affected community is unable to recover, the ecosystem may permanently shift to a more disturbed state (Sköld et al, 2018).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The impacts of hydraulic clamming in shallow water and the importance of incorporating anthropogenic disturbances into habitat assessments

Legare

Mittermayr

Borrelli

2020

Aquat. Living Resour.

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Hydraulic dredging for shellfish is known to create some of the highest levels of disturbance, affecting the benthic microfaunal community and the physical characteristics of the substrate. Properly conducted benthic habitat assessments are complex and time consuming, resulting in assessments not being conducted increasing the uncertainty in post impact studies. Hydraulic dredging for Atlantic surfclams (Spisula soldidissima) took place at Herring Cove, Massachusetts in the winter of 2014–2015 resulting in areas of high impact disturbance of the seafloor. Surveys conducted in the summer of 2015 included hydroacoustics, benthic invertebrate sampling, video, and grain size analysis for the creation of a habitat map of Herring Cove. The four habitats (A–D) identified were a mix of sand, shell, cobble, algae, and eelgrass. Habitat type “D” is a mix of sand, algae and cobble material and occurred at 12 of 18 stations. These 12 stations were distributed across areas of “high” (n = 4), “low” (n = 2), and “no” (n = 6) hydraulic dredge disturbance. Once habitat was accounted for, benthic invertebrate community structure varied significantly (Analysis of similarity; significance level of sample statistic: 0.3%) between areas of “high”, “low” to “no” disturbance. Areas of “low” to “no” dredge track coverage contained high abundances of bivalves, echinoderms, and isopods, whereas highly disturbed areas had highest abundances of polychaetes and oligochaetes. Future mapping efforts, especially surveys with biological components, need to include and quantify the level, type and spatial distribution of anthropogenic alterations. More attention should be given to “reference maps” instead of “baseline maps”. The latter of which omits to acknowledge pre-existing anthropogenic disturbances and has the potential to skew monitoring of restoration and management efforts.

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“…The Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) (FGDC 2012) hierarchical naming scheme is the U.S. Federal Standard for consistent descriptions and definitions of ecological settings and features that characterize substrate, biology, geology, and the water column in coasts and estuaries. An advantage of CMECS terminology is that features are well‐defined and uniquely named, and so can be used with any assessment method or by any analyst to document changes over time without re‐playing the original recordings (Kingon 2018; Mittermayr et al 2020; Terrill 2021). Once quantitative data are transcribed into the CMECS classification scheme, they meet a high standard for data transferability and can be consistently compared with similar video efforts worldwide.…”

Section: Assessmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and use of a novel diver‐operated ski for surveying nearshore rocky reef habitats

Thornber,

Cicchetti,

Green‐Gavrielidis

et al. 2024

Limnology & Ocean Methods

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The use of camera and video technologies for conducting underwater surveys has rapidly expanded over the past several decades. However, the utility of these systems can be significantly hampered by numerous logistical factors, including limited underwater visibility, rough bottom topography, and ease of use for the operator. Video studies can be difficult to compare when methods and terminologies differ. Here, we describe the development of a cost‐effective diver‐propelled underwater ski‐based video system for rapidly acquiring videos in challenging shallow, high‐energy rocky benthic habitats for quantifying fish, macroalgae, and invertebrates in a coastal temperate system. The ski held the camera at a (relatively) fixed distance from the seafloor, we used parallel lasers to quantify our observations, and we used the standardized language of the Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard to acquire consistent quantitative data to serve as an ecological baseline, also including archived images. Our results indicate that the ski proved to be an effective tool for capturing insightful data that would otherwise be very difficult and time‐consuming to collect. Our baseline and repeatable methods can be used by other investigators at this or other locations for monitoring, re‐evaluation, or comparisons to other sites.

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Applications of the Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) in a Partially Restored New England Salt Marsh Lagoon

Cited by 6 publications

References 38 publications

Vessel-Based, Shallow Water Mapping with a Phase-Measuring Sidescan Sonar

Vessel-Based, Shallow Water Mapping with a Phase-Measuring Sidescan Sonar

The impacts of hydraulic clamming in shallow water and the importance of incorporating anthropogenic disturbances into habitat assessments

Development and use of a novel diver‐operated ski for surveying nearshore rocky reef habitats

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