UAV High-Resolution Imaging and Disease Surveys Combine to Quantify Climate-Related Decline in Seagrass Meadows
Lillian R. Aoki, Bo Yang, Olivia Graham, Carla P. Gomes, Brendan Rappazzo, Timothy L. Hawthorne, Emmett Duffy, C. Drew Harvell
Abstract
Seagrass meadows are essential habitats that support marine biodiversity and coastal communities while sequestering carbon, filtering water, and stabilizing coastal sediments. Warming temperatures stress seagrass meadows and can facilitate seagrass wasting disease, contributing to large-scale diebacks of seagrass meadows. Here, we demonstrate how high-resolution imagery, collected by uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) and validated by in situ sampling, can quantify seagrass responses to disease and thermal stress.
Topics & Concepts
SeagrassEnvironmental scienceHabitatBiodiversitySampling (signal processing)OceanographyClimate changeEcologyFisheryRemote sensingGeographyBiologyGeologyComputer visionComputer scienceFilter (signal processing)Marine and coastal plant biologyCoral and Marine Ecosystems StudiesPlant Pathogens and Fungal Diseases