The role of biological shape in optical and acoustic measurements ...

• Main Author: Bairstow, Fiona Jay
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: The University of St Andrews 2022
• Subjects: Antarctic krill; Euphausia superba; Geometric morphometrics; Target strength; Acoustic scattering; Biomass; Fisheries acoustics; Geostatistics; Amphioxus; Optical coherence tomography; Nerve cord; Regeneration; Shape catalogue; Antarctic; Antarc*; Antarctic Krill
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.17630/sta/352; https://research-repository.st-andrews.ac.uk/handle/10023/27212

This thesis investigates the role of biological shape in optical and acoustic measurement systems. Landmark-based geometric morphometrics (GMM) is a method of biological shape quantification based on the relationship between landmarks placed at anatomical location. GMM enables robust statistical analysis, comparisons between shapes, and visualisation of shape changes. This thesis explores the application of GMM with optical imaging for in vivo interpretation of amphioxus nerve cord shape, and acoustic measurements of Antarctic krill to improve biomass estimates. Optical imaging was performed using optical coherence tomography (OCT), an in vivo, label free imaging modality. A longitudinal study of amphioxus using OCT was conducted to capture the shape of the nerve cord during tail regeneration. Evidence for axial variation in the shape of the amphioxus nerve cord was found, however this work primarily develops a methodology and further studies are recommended to draw robust conclusions. GMM was used to ...