A diver-operated hyperspectral imaging and topographic surveying system for automated mapping of benthic habitats.

ABSTRACT: We developed a novel integrated technology for diver-operated surveying of shallow marine ecosystems. The HyperDiver system captures rich multifaceted data in each transect: hyperspectral and color imagery, topographic profiles, incident irradiance and water chemistry at a rate of 15-30 m² per minute. From surveys in a coral reef following standard diver protocols, we show how the rich optical detail can be leveraged to generate photopigment abundance and benthic composition maps. We applied machine learning techniques, with a minor annotation effort (<2% of pixels), to automatically generate cm-scale benthic habitat maps of high taxonomic resolution and accuracy (93-97%). The ability to efficiently map benthic composition, photopigment densities and rugosity at reef scales is a

SUBMITTER: Chennu A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5541065 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature