Lessons from photo analyses of Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures as tools to detect (bio-)geographical, spatial, and environmental effects
International audience We investigated the validity of Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) as monitoring tools for hard bottoms across a wide geographic and environmental range. We deployed 36 ARMS in the northeast Atlantic, northwest Mediterranean, Adriatic and Red Sea at 7–17 m depth. Aft...
Published in: | Marine Pollution Bulletin |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
Other Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
HAL CCSD
2019
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | https://hal.science/hal-02061256 https://hal.science/hal-02061256/document https://hal.science/hal-02061256/file/2019_David_Marine%20Pollution%20Bulletin_pr_Lessons%20from%20photo%20analyses%20of%20Autonomous%20Reef%20Monitoring%20Structures%20as%20tools%20to%20detect%20%28bio-%29geographical,%20spatial,%20and%20environmental%20effects.pdf https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2019.02.066 |
Summary: | International audience We investigated the validity of Autonomous Reef Monitoring Structures (ARMS) as monitoring tools for hard bottoms across a wide geographic and environmental range. We deployed 36 ARMS in the northeast Atlantic, northwest Mediterranean, Adriatic and Red Sea at 7–17 m depth. After 12–16 months, community composition was inferred from photographs, in six plate-faces for each ARMS. Overall, we found a highly significant effect of sea region, site (within seas), and plate-face on community composition. Plate-faces thus represent distinct micro-habitats and provide pseudo-replicates, increasing statistical power. Within each sea region taken individually, there was also a highly significant effect of site and plate-face. Because strong effects were obtained despite the fusion of taxonomic categories at high taxonomic ranks (to ensure comparability among biogeographic provinces), ARMS photo-analysis appears a promising monitoring tool for each sea region. We recommend keeping three ARMS per site and analyzing more numerous sites within a sea region to investigate environmental effects. |
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