Translating local benthic community structure to national biogenic reef habitat types

Benthic Invertebrate Community Structure

Fundamental to the scientific method is the use of controls or control conditions against which results obtained under test conditions are compared. In field studies, all variables cannot be controlled and replicates cannot be randomly assigned to treatments, so an attempt is made to choose test and control conditions (often represented by different sites) that are as similar as possible; the v...

Translating Literary Types

Reef Fishes of Saba Bank, Netherlands Antilles: Assemblage Structure across a Gradient of Habitat Types

Saba Bank is a 2,200 km(2) submerged carbonate platform in the northeastern Caribbean Sea off Saba Island, Netherlands Antilles. The presence of reef-like geomorphic features and significant shelf edge coral development on Saba Bank have led to the conclusion that it is an actively growing, though wholly submerged, coral reef atoll. However, little information exists on the composition of benth...

Abundance, size and habitat relation of reef fish on biogenic structures (structure-forming invertebrates) at Anacapa Island, southern California

A biogenic structure ecosystem of extensive worm tubes of Chaetopterus sp. harbouring different fish species was investigated at Anacapa Island, southern California to determine the numerical abundance, species composition, body size, and seasonality of the ichthyofauna associated, and their relation with the worm patch size. Bimonthly, a 30-m swimming transect and a quadrat-based survey estima...

Applying data fusion techniques for benthic habitat mapping and monitoring in a coral reef ecosystem

Accurate mapping and effective monitoring of benthic habitat in the Florida Keys are critical in developing management strategies for this valuable coral reef ecosystem. For this study, a framework was designed for automated benthic habitat mapping by combining multiple data sources (hyperspectral, aerial photography, and bathymetry data) and four contemporary imagery processing techniques (dat...