Detection of Stones in Marine Habitats Combining Simultaneous Hydroacoustic Surveys

Exposed stones in sandy sublittoral environments are hotspots for marine biodiversity, especially for benthic communities. The detection of single stones is principally possible using sidescan-sonar (SSS) backscatter data. The data resolution has to be high to visualize the acoustic shadows of the s...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geosciences (Basel) 2018-08, Vol.8 (8), p.279
Main Authors: Papenmeier, Svenja, Hass, H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
acoustic ground discrimination
Acoustics
Aquatic habitats
Backscatter
Backscattering
Benthic communities
Benthos
Biodiversity
Data
Data acquisition
Detection
Earth science
Echo sounding
Echoes
Gravel
Habitats
Hard bottom habitats
Hyperbolas
Localization
Marine parks
Marine protected areas
moraine deposits
Moraines
nonlinear echo-sounder
object detection
Procedures
Sea level
Sediment
Sediment deposits
Sediments
Shadows
Side scan sonar
Soft bottom habitats
Sonar
Sonar data
stones
sub-bottom profiler
Substrates
Surveys
Underwater habitats
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Summary:Exposed stones in sandy sublittoral environments are hotspots for marine biodiversity, especially for benthic communities. The detection of single stones is principally possible using sidescan-sonar (SSS) backscatter data. The data resolution has to be high to visualize the acoustic shadows of the stones. Otherwise, stony substrates will not be differentiable from other high backscatter substrates (e.g., gravel). Acquiring adequate sonar data and identifying stones in backscatter images is time consuming because it usually requires visual-manual procedures. To develop a more efficient identification and demarcation procedure of stone fields, sidescan sonar and parametric echo sound data were recorded within the marine protected area of “Sylt Outer Reef” (German Bight, North Sea). The investigated area (~5.900 km2) is characterized by dispersed heterogeneous moraine and marine deposits. Data from parametric sediment echo sounder indicate hyperbolas at the sediment surface in stony areas, which can easily be exported. By combining simultaneous recorded low backscatter data and parametric single beam data, stony grounds were demarcated faster, less complex and reproducible from gravelly substrates indicating similar high backscatter in the SSS data.
ISSN:2076-3263
2076-3263
DOI:10.3390/geosciences8080279