Photo credit: Nathan Angelakis
Scientists have strapped actions cameras onto sea lions (Neophoca cinerea) to identify previously unmapped benthic habitats used by the animals on the continental shelf. A total of 89 hours of footage allowed the team to identify six benthic habitats: macroalgae reef, macroalgae meadow, bare sand, sponge/sand, invertebrate reefs, and invertebrate boulder.
Machine learning models were then used to predict large habitat areas across the continental shelf of southern Australia. This also required incorporated 21-years of oceanographic and environmental factors which may be important drivers of the structure as well as distribution of these habitats.
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Using animal-borne video and movement data from a benthic predator is a really effective way of mapping diverse benthic habitats across large areas of the seabed. These data are useful both for mapping critical habitats for an endangered species such as the Australian sea lion, and more broadly, for mapping unexplored areas of the seabed,” said Nathan Angelakis, first author and PhD student with The University of Adelaide and the South Australian Research and Development Institute (Aquatic Sciences).
