Kelp forests worldwide are under increasing pressure from anthropogenic impacts including kelp harvesting, pollution, and higher sea surface temperatures due to climate change. Accurate mapping of these habitat types is required to inform effective conservation policies. We show that adding the acoustic energy from the multibeam echosounder water-column data immediately above the seafloor as a variable in models of the distribution of benthic marine habitats can significantly improve the accuracy of the resulting maps, specifically for habitat categories that include large species of macroalgae on shallow subtidal reefs. Observations from a comprehensive towed-video survey were used as ground-truth and classified according to a hierarchical marine biotope classification scheme. The multibeam echosounder water-column data were processed into a 2D layer akin to a seafloor backscatter mosaic, but instead representing the average acoustic energy in a layer 0–1 m above the seabed, excluding the echo from the seafloor itself and after filtering the specular artifact. Including this “water-column mosaic” in models increased the maps' overall accuracy by up to 1.18 percent points and improved producer accuracies for habitats that contained macroalgae by up to 2.95 percent points. With increasing pressure on temperate macroalgal communities arising from warming oceans, our work provides a timely advance for mapping these critical habitats and monitoring changes in their distribution.

中文翻译：

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将多波束回声测深仪水柱数据整合到底栖栖息地测绘中

世界范围内的海带森林正面临越来越大的人为影响压力，包括海带收获、污染和气候变化导致的海面温度升高。需要对这些栖息地类型进行准确的测绘，以便为有效的保护政策提供信息。我们表明，将来自海底正上方的多波束回声测深仪水柱数据的声能作为变量添加到底栖海洋栖息地分布模型中可以显着提高所得地图的准确性，特别是对于包括大型物种的栖息地类别浅潮下带礁上的大型藻类。综合拖曳视频调查的观察结果被用作地面实况，并根据分层海洋生物群落分类方案进行分类。多波束回声测深仪水柱数据被处理成类似于海底后向散射马赛克的二维层，而是表示海床上方 0-1 m 层中的平均声能，不包括来自海底本身的回声和过滤镜面反射后人工制品。在模型中加入这种“水柱马赛克”可使地图的整体准确度提高 1.18 个百分点，并将含有大型藻类的栖息地的生产者准确度提高 2.95 个百分点。随着海洋变暖对温带大型藻类群落造成的压力越来越大，我们的工作为绘制这些关键栖息地的地图和监测它们的分布变化提供了及时的进展。排除来自海底本身的回声和过滤镜面伪影后的回声。在模型中加入这种“水柱马赛克”可使地图的整体准确度提高 1.18 个百分点，并将含有大型藻类的栖息地的生产者准确度提高 2.95 个百分点。随着海洋变暖对温带大型藻类群落造成的压力越来越大，我们的工作为绘制这些关键栖息地的地图和监测它们的分布变化提供了及时的进展。排除来自海底本身的回声和过滤镜面伪影后的回声。在模型中加入这种“水柱马赛克”可使地图的整体准确度提高 1.18 个百分点，并将含有大型藻类的栖息地的生产者准确度提高 2.95 个百分点。随着海洋变暖对温带大型藻类群落造成的压力越来越大，我们的工作为绘制这些关键栖息地的地图和监测它们的分布变化提供了及时的进展。