1. Biodiversity in turbid aquatic environments is commonly assessed using extractive sampling methods that damage the seabed. Underwater cameras equipped with clear liquid optical chambers (CLOCs) for the assessment of seabed habitats and species are a non-extractive alternative and have been applied in turbid environments globally. A CLOC is a body of clear liquid positioned in front of a camera to reduce the scattering of light that would otherwise occur when passing through the turbid water it displaces. Here, we test and quantify the effectiveness of a CLOC for marine benthic biodiversity assessments over gradients of increasing turbidity.
2. The addition of a CLOC to a conventional benthic camera system significantly enhanced the quality of information gathered. Images acquired using the CLOC system consistently recorded statistically higher values of image quality (49% increase, based on the clarity of the image), seabed visible within the drop-down frame (34% increase), and European Nature Information System habitat level identification (49% increase). Furthermore, it was found that the ‘annotation success’ of taxa (classification of a specimen to family level or higher) was found to increase between individual experts in the presence of a CLOC. A reduced sampling effort was also identified when using a CLOC. Taxonomic richness increased by 27% when comparing the same number of image stills collected with and without the CLOC.
3. By reducing the limitations of underwater visibility previously attributed to underwater cameras, this concept extends the potential for use of non-destructive survey techniques and allows for future users to collect robust information of an area, making better informed management decisions.

中文翻译：

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改善浑浊水生环境中的底栖生物多样性评估

1. 通常使用破坏海床的提取采样方法来评估混浊水生环境中的生物多样性。配备透明液体光学室 (CLOC) 的水下相机用于评估海底栖息地和物种是一种非提取性替代方案，已在全球混浊环境中得到应用。CLOC 是一种放置在相机前面的透明液体，以减少光线在穿过它所取代的浑浊水时会发生的散射。在这里，我们测试和量化 CLOC 在浊度增加的梯度上对海洋底栖生物多样性评估的有效性。
2. 将 CLOC 添加到传统底栖相机系统显着提高了收集的信息质量。使用 CLOC 系统获取的图像始终记录更高的图像质量值（增加 49%，基于图像的清晰度）、下拉框内可见海底（增加 34%）以及欧洲自然信息系统栖息地级别识别（增加 49%）。此外，发现分类群的“注释成功”（将标本分类到家庭级别或更高级别）在存在 CLOC 的情况下在个别专家之间增加。使用 CLOC 时还发现了减少的抽样工作。比较使用和不使用 CLOC 收集的相同数量的图像静止图像时，分类丰富度增加了 27%。
3. 通过减少以前归因于水下相机的水下能见度的限制，这一概念扩展了使用无损调查技术的潜力，并允许未来用户收集一个区域的可靠信息，做出更明智的管理决策。