Walker-Milne Natasha L, Elliott Sophie, Wright Peter J, Bailey David M
School of Biodiversity, One Health and Veterinary Medicine, College of Medical, Veterinary and Life Sciences, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, United Kingdom.
Game and Wildlife Trust, Salmon and Trout Research Centre, Wareham, United Kingdom.
PLoS One. 2025 Apr 3;20(4):e0319355. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0319355. eCollection 2025.
To make the best-informed decisions on managing marine resources whilst also restoring biodiversity, the creation and analysis of benthic maps is highly valuable. This study focuses on benthic mapping to study patch - and landscape - level processes affecting epifauna and demersal species using Stereo Baited Remote Underwater Video (SBRUV) and Drop-Down Video (DDV) surveys. Surveys were conducted within the South Arran Marine Protected Area between 2013-2019 and yielded 554 SBRUV data points and 333 DDV data points. These data were processed to determine proportional coverage of substrata and kriged to produce benthic maps. From this it was possible to estimate the patch scale of substrata to gain a more detailed understanding of the marine landscape, composition structure, and epibenthic biodiversity. The resulting validated maps allowed the number of substrata patches and patch characteristics such as area and perimeter-to-area ratio to be calculated to support management and understanding of the value of this seascapes for benthic and demersal biodiversity. Our approach allowed for the identification of areas of higher biodiversity that may assist during mapping of Marine Protected Areas' (MPA) vulnerable features. These methods should provide better information about site condition and ecosystem service provision than existing methods.
为了在管理海洋资源的同时做出最明智的决策，同时恢复生物多样性，底栖地图的创建和分析具有很高的价值。本研究聚焦于底栖测绘，利用立体诱饵远程水下视频（SBRUV）和下拉式视频（DDV）调查来研究影响表栖动物和底栖物种的斑块和景观层面的过程。调查于2013年至2019年在南阿兰海洋保护区内进行，获得了554个SBRUV数据点和333个DDV数据点。对这些数据进行处理，以确定底质的比例覆盖率，并进行克里金插值以生成底栖地图。由此可以估计底质的斑块规模，以便更详细地了解海洋景观、组成结构和底栖生物多样性。最终经过验证的地图能够计算出底质斑块的数量以及斑块特征，如面积和周长与面积比，以支持对这片海景对于底栖和底栖生物多样性价值的管理和理解。我们的方法能够识别出生物多样性较高的区域，这在绘制海洋保护区（MPA）的脆弱特征时可能会有所帮助。这些方法应该比现有方法能提供有关场地状况和生态系统服务的更好信息。
