![]() ![]() Among the main factors causing their population loss are the reduction of water quality due to pollution, the illegal fishing gear, the introduction of invasive species or eutrophication ( Brun et al., 2015 Veetil et al., 2020 Zoffoli et al., 2020). However, they are currently one of the most threatened ecosystems, resulting in a significant decrease in their global extension ( Veetil et al., 2020 Yang et al., 2020) due to their vulnerability to natural, and mainly, anthropogenic activities ( Sánchez-Quiles et al., 2017 Tamondong et al., 2020 Zoffoli et al., 2020). These meadows are spread throughout tropical and temperate coastal areas around the world. Seagrass beds also provide climate-change mitigating services, such as reduction in ocean acidification by buffering pH ( Garrard et al., 2014), elevating sediment height and trapping particulate matter ( Potouroglou et al., 2017). In addition, they perform coastal protection tasks, reducing the hydrodynamic forces of the waves and protecting the seabed from erosion thus facilitating sedimentation ( Brun et al., 2015 Zoffoli et al., 2020). They act as large sinks of atmospheric CO 2 ( De los Santos et al., 2020 Egea et al., 2020 Zoffoli et al., 2020), but they are also considered biodiversity hotspots providing refuge and food for numerous animal species, some of which are protected, such as turtles or other marine mammals ( Brodie et al., 2018 Egea et al., 2020 Veetil et al., 2020). Marine macrophytes, including seagrass meadows and macroalgae, constitute a coastal habitat of great value due to the ecosystem services they provide, which makes them one of the most productive ecosystems on the planet, comparable to coral reefs or tropical forests ( Beca-Carretero et al., 2020 Veetil et al., 2020 Zoffoli et al., 2020). We inferred the existence of a cover of 25452 m 2 of Cymodocea nodosa, and macroalgae species such as Caulerpa prolifera, covering 22172 m 2 of Santibañez (inner Bay of Cádiz). The results obtained with MLC confirm the suitability of this technique for detecting and differentiating seagrass meadows in a range of 0–2 m depth and the efficiency of this tool for studying and monitoring marine macrophytes in coastal areas. This study aims to advance the monitoring of these ecosystems through the use of a UAV equipped with a 10-band multispectral camera, using different algorithms, and using the Bay of Cádiz Natural Park (southern Spain) as a case of study. Their monitoring is therefore essential, which has experienced a fast methodological evolution in recent years, from traditional in situ sampling to the use of satellite remote sensing, and subsequently by sensors mounted on unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Marine macrophytes constitute one of the most productive ecosystems on the planet, as well as one of the most threatened by anthropogenic activities and climate change. 2Department of Integrative Marine Ecology, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (SZN), Naples, Italy.1Department of Ecology and Coastal Management, Institute of Marine Sciences of Andalusia (ICMAN), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Puerto Real, Spain. ![]() Alejandro Román 1* Antonio Tovar-Sánchez 1 Irene Olivé 2 Gabriel Navarro 1 ![]()
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