AquaBiota executed surveys of the marine seafloor using drop video, grab sampling, diving and aquascope. The project is commissioned by the County Administrative Board of Gävleborg and aims to cater for the needs of field data for conservation value assessment and maps of underwater biotopes.
Video inventory using the App created by AquaBiota.
As for today, only 2 % of Gävleborg’s marine areas are protected. To fulfil the government mandate of 10 % protection by 2020, increased knowledge of the underwater environment is needed. The first step is to gather information on important areas and their conservation values. AquaBiota has thus sampled the seafloor to complement existing field data in the whole county and made in-depth surveys of vegetation and benthic fauna in 15 areas. In three of the areas charophytes were surveyed using aquascope. In this project the AquaBiota drop video app was tested in field.
Field stations in the Gävleborg County.
Data from this year’s field campaign is used together with previously sampled data to create maps of underwater biotopes. These will be used for monitoring and conservation value assessment.
The project is financed by the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management, and the Swedish Board of Agriculture.