Without population trends of species, it is hard to assess the effects of pressures or the risk of extinction of species. However, monitoring the state of the populations of many taxa is hampered by the difficulties and the costs of surveys. This is the case of freshwater mussels that are declining rapidly due to habitat degradation worldwide. Driven by rising conservation concerns, the study of these taxa increased over the past few decades, but their conservation still faces several challenges. Foremost, acquiring the basic information (distribution, habitat preferences) crucial to freshwater mussels' conservation is impeded by inadequate funding. Potentially exacerbating this problem is the difficulty to survey freshwater mussels, because they are often rare, spatially clustered, and difficult to detect. In addition, mussel surveys are often hampered by restrictive environmental conditions, such as high water level, strong current, or high turbidity. As in a vicious circle, these constraints may dramatically increase the survey costs, exacerbating the problem of allocating (highly limited) funds. To escape this bottleneck we started exploring the potentiality of using underwater drones, which are being developed for our specific tasks, by a recently created startâEURup company. The use of drones is becoming increasingly popular in ecological research because of their versatile use in data capture. Drones are a beneficial tool not only for economical and safety reasons, but also for obtaining data that cannot be accessed otherwise. However, to date its use for research, monitoring and conservation have focused on aerial drones, surprisingly neglecting the underwater drones. We started to assessing the efficiency of the drone in locating and counting mussels, and exploring the limits for field application under gradients of environmental limitations, such as water turbidity, water depth, current velocity, slope of the bank, and substrate composition.
Exploring the potentiality of underwater drones for freshwater mussels survey
Riccardi N;Boggero A
2017
Abstract
Without population trends of species, it is hard to assess the effects of pressures or the risk of extinction of species. However, monitoring the state of the populations of many taxa is hampered by the difficulties and the costs of surveys. This is the case of freshwater mussels that are declining rapidly due to habitat degradation worldwide. Driven by rising conservation concerns, the study of these taxa increased over the past few decades, but their conservation still faces several challenges. Foremost, acquiring the basic information (distribution, habitat preferences) crucial to freshwater mussels' conservation is impeded by inadequate funding. Potentially exacerbating this problem is the difficulty to survey freshwater mussels, because they are often rare, spatially clustered, and difficult to detect. In addition, mussel surveys are often hampered by restrictive environmental conditions, such as high water level, strong current, or high turbidity. As in a vicious circle, these constraints may dramatically increase the survey costs, exacerbating the problem of allocating (highly limited) funds. To escape this bottleneck we started exploring the potentiality of using underwater drones, which are being developed for our specific tasks, by a recently created startâEURup company. The use of drones is becoming increasingly popular in ecological research because of their versatile use in data capture. Drones are a beneficial tool not only for economical and safety reasons, but also for obtaining data that cannot be accessed otherwise. However, to date its use for research, monitoring and conservation have focused on aerial drones, surprisingly neglecting the underwater drones. We started to assessing the efficiency of the drone in locating and counting mussels, and exploring the limits for field application under gradients of environmental limitations, such as water turbidity, water depth, current velocity, slope of the bank, and substrate composition.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
