Photogrammetry as a promising tool to unveil marine caves' benthic assemblages.

ABSTRACT: Traditionally, monitoring approaches to survey marine caves have been constrained by equipment limitations and strict safety protocols. Nowadays, the rise of new approaches opens new possibilities to describe these peculiar ecosystems. The current study aimed to explore the potential of Structure from Motion (SfM) photogrammetry to assess the abundance and spatial distribution of the sessile benthic assemblages inside a semi-submerged marine cave. Additionally, since impacts of recent date mussel Lithophaga lithophaga illegal fishing were recorded, a special emphasis was paid to its distribution and densities. The results of SfM were compared with a more "traditional approach", by simulating photo-quadrats deployments over the produced orthomosaics. A total of 22 sessile taxa were identifi

SUBMITTER: Pulido Mantas T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10172382 | biostudies-literature | 2023 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature