Abstract
Long Island Sound (LIS) is a large estuary on the Atlantic coast of the highly developed northeast United States. However, limited spatially comprehensive habitat information has been available at sufficient resolution to inform planning and management of conflicting uses. A pilot project was conducted at a site with diverse topography and sediment characteristics in central LIS. The aim of the study was to develop methodologies to characterize the variety of benthic habitats and infaunal and epifaunal communities. This information was then used to produce habitat maps to inform stakeholders and decision-makers.
Backscatter was processed using supervised segmentation with final acoustic “habitat” patches defined by sediment grain size, bathymetry, slope, and a topographic roughness index. Ecological attributes were determined using diversity indices and multivariate and image analyses of species composition data collected seasonally via grab samples, photography, and video. Some community dominants exhibited stability across seasons while others were seasonal in occurrence. Linkages between species and community distributions to seafloor characteristics occurred across multiple spatial scales. An integrated habitat map synthesized the general characteristics of seafloor habitats and associated species to provide a first order visualization of this complex subtidal landscape.