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Quantifying Submerged Aquatic Vegetation Using Aerial Photograph Interpretation
Author(s) -
Fitzgerald D. G.,
Zhu B.,
Hoskins S. B.,
Haddad D. E.,
Green K. N.,
Rudstam L. G.,
Mills E. L.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
fisheries
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.725
H-Index - 79
eISSN - 1548-8446
pISSN - 0363-2415
DOI - 10.1577/1548-8446(2005)30[61:qsavua]2.0.co;2
Subject(s) - aerial photography , habitat , aquatic ecosystem , watershed , resource (disambiguation) , vegetation (pathology) , aquatic plant , ecosystem , ecology , environmental resource management , environmental science , remote sensing , computer science , geography , biology , macrophyte , medicine , computer network , pathology , machine learning
Use of aerial photograph interpretation (API) in resource inventory projects recently has increased, and this reflects benefits like established protocols, high spatial resolution, readily available photography, and limited cost. Application of API to quantify features of aquatic habitats used by fishes, like submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV), has been advocated for decades but a paucity of use suggests inadequate awareness of the methods. This article reviews a protocol that guides the use of API to quantify features of aquatic habitats, and then uses examples from contrasting habitats in the Lake Ontario watershed from 1972–2003 to illustrate this protocol. Even though we used photographs originally collected for other purposes, API identified the change in minimum area and depth distribution of SAV over time. These observations reinforce how API can contribute information to resource inventories, and why investigators should expand use of API in studies of aquatic ecosystems.