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Seafloor monitoring west of Helgoland (German Bight, North Sea) using the acoustic ground discrimination system RoxAnn

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Abstract

Marine habitats of shelf seas are in constant dynamic change and therefore need regular assessment particularly in areas of special interest. In this study, the single-beam acoustic ground discrimination system RoxAnn served to assess seafloor hardness and roughness, and combine these parameters into one variable expressed as RGB (red green blue) color code followed by k-means fuzzy cluster analysis (FCA). The data were collected at a monitoring site west of the island of Helgoland (German Bight, SE North Sea) in the course of four surveys between September 2011 and November 2014. The study area has complex characteristics varying from outcropping bedrock to sandy and muddy sectors with mostly gradual transitions. RoxAnn data enabled to discriminate all seafloor types that were suggested by ground-truth information (seafloor samples, video). The area appears to be quite stable overall; sediment import (including fluid mud) was detected only from the NW. Although hard substrates (boulders, bedrock) are clearly identified, the signal can be modified by inclination and biocover. Manually, six RoxAnn zones were identified; for the FCA, only three classes are suggested. The latter classification based on ‘hard’ boundaries would suffice for stakeholder issues, but the former classification based on ‘soft’ boundaries is preferred to meet state-of-the-art scientific objectives.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Cpt. Robert Voss and his crew of RV Heincke for their help and cooperation during many surveys. We acknowledge the aid of many students in the frame of internships. This study was carried out within the WIMO project (“Scientific Monitoring Concepts for the German Bight”) funded by the Ministry for Environment and Climate Protection and Ministry for Science and Culture of Lower Saxony, Germany. We are grateful to two reviewers and the journal editors for many helpful comments. All data can be downloaded from the PANGAEA data bank (www.pangaea.de).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alfred Wegener Institute, Helmholtz Centre for Polar and Marine Research, Wadden Sea Research Station, Hafenstraße 43, 25992, List/Sylt, Germany

    H. Christian Hass, Finn Mielck, Dario Fiorentino & Svenja Papenmeier

  2. Senckenberg am Meer, Department for Marine Research, Südstrand 40, 26382, Wilhelmshaven, Germany

    Peter Holler & Alexander Bartholomä

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  1. H. Christian Hass
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Correspondence to H. Christian Hass.

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Hass, H.C., Mielck, F., Fiorentino, D. et al. Seafloor monitoring west of Helgoland (German Bight, North Sea) using the acoustic ground discrimination system RoxAnn. Geo-Mar Lett 37, 125–136 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00367-016-0483-1

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