Towards reproducible analysis of benthos structural complexity: A case study on Antarctic polychaete reefs using action cameras and remotely operated vehicles

Description of project

Habitat-forming organisms possess structural complexity that drive multiple ecosystem processes. There is a lack of knowledge and protocols on how to quantify Antarctic habitat-forming organisms structural complexity and associated species. This project aims to characterize the structural complexity of an Antarctic polychaete reef, describe a protocol to acquire this data, and discuss monitoring implications.

Notebook

Encouragement to use, clone and cite the notebook presented here. This is a notebook corresponding to the published publication:

Montes-Herrera, J.C., Hill, N., Cummings, V.J., Johnstone, G., Stark, J.S., Lucieer, V. 2023. Remote sensing of Antarctic polychaete reefs: Reproducible workflows for quantifying benthic structural complexity with action cameras, remotely operated vehicles, and structure-from-motion photogrammetry. Remote Sensing in Ecology and Conservation, 10: 72-90. https://doi.org/10.1002/rse2.358

Contact

J.C. Montes-Herrera
juancarlos.montesherrera@utas.edu.au
Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), University of Tasmania, Australia

Project Data

• ROV imagery
  • Frontal ROV video
  • NADIR GoPro images & video
• Table of ROV depth & transect times
• Benthic cover annotations
• Habitat structural metrics

Data availability

Orthomosaics and Digital Elevation Models available as raster files (.tiff) https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7115132

Sampling and processing methods

• Remotely Operated Vehicle
• Underwater cameras
• Structure from Motion photogrammetry
• Digital Elevation Model & GIS analysis
• R code developed by Fukunaga et al. (2019) https://doi.org/10.3390/jmse7020027
• Original Python & R code

Data acquisition:

Australian Antarctic Division
2019
Johnny Stark & Glenn Johnstone

Geographic coverage

Ellis Fjord, Vestfold Hills, Antarctica

Taxonomic coverage

Serpula narconensis colonies
Associated fauna identified visually with ID guides and literature

Keywords

biogenic structure, underwater photogrammetry, structural Complexity, Digital Elevation Model, Remotely Operated Vehicle, benthos

Responsible(s)

J.C. Montes-Herrera juancarlos.montesherrera@utas.edu.au