Monitoring mosaic biotopes in a marine conservation zone by autonomous underwater vehicle

Abstract

The extent of marine protected areas (MPAs) has increased dramatically in the last decade, and poses a major logistic challenge for conservation practitioners in terms of spatial extent and the multiplicity of habitats and biotopes that now require assessment. Here we demonstrate a single field method, photographic assessment by autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) that enables the consistent description of multiple habitats, in our case including mosaics of rock and sediment. We describe a case study in the Greater Haig Fras marine conservation zone (Celtic Sea, NE Atlantic) where we distinguished seven biotopes, detected statistically significant variations in standing stocks, species density, species diversity, and faunal composition, and identified significant indicator species for each habitat. Our results demonstrate that AUV-based photography can produce robust data for ecological research and practical marine conservation. We note that standardizing to a minimum number of individuals per sampling unit, rather than to a fixed seafloor area, may be a valuable means of defining an ecologically appropriate sampling unit. Although representing a change in ‘standard practise’, we suggest that other users consider the potential benefits of this approach in their own conservation studies. The approach is broadly applicable in the marine environment, and has already been successfully implemented in deep-sea conservation and impact studies. It is clear that without a cost-effective methodology, applicable across habitats, it will be difficult to progress a coherent classification of biotopes, or to routinely assess their conservation status, in the rapidly expanding global extent of MPAs.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Noelie Benoist: orcid.org/0000-0003-1978-3538

ORCID for Veerle Huvenne: orcid.org/0000-0001-7135-6360

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