The project, funded as a Southampton Geospatial and Southampton Marine and Maritime Institute pilot project, seeks to survey and assess the health of seagrass beds in Studland Bay, Dorset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The PicoCat ASV was deployed along preset survey lines to map a patch of seagrass that has been recovering from previous anchor damage. In an effort to reduce this damage and allow recovery, ‘eco-moorings’ have been installed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n These are designed to reduce boat anchor damage and so allow the seagrasses and local biodiversity to thrive whilst maintaining the vibrant sailing and recreational activities within the bay. <\/p>\n\n\n\n “Our work will support the local community and organisations that manage the area, to implement an appropriate conservation strategy to protect and promote the health of these seagrass meadows”<\/p>\nDr Hachem Kassem, School of Ocean and Earth Sciences<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The collected MBES data can be analysed in a number of ways to try and detect seagrass occurence, for example analysis of first and last beam returns and creation of roughness maps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The map below shows the results of applying a moving window standard deviation of elevation filter to the MBES pings. Here, hotter colours correspond to high deviations in the ping data, indicative of the presence of seagrass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The deployment of PicoCat was supplemented with underwater vehicles from the Ocean Perception<\/a> team, led by Prof. Blair Thornton<\/a> and ground truthed using dives led by Dr Ken Collins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" ES@S is helping to deploy innovative mapping tools to help to protect seagrass in … <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/esas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/495\/2023\/11\/StudlandSeagrass_Team01_WebVersion.jpg\")
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![\"\"](\"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/esas\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/495\/2023\/11\/std_seagrass-1024x520.jpg\")