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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics
Thermal Consolidation Of Dredge Sand For Artificial Reef Formations, Alexandro Trevino
Thermal Consolidation Of Dredge Sand For Artificial Reef Formations, Alexandro Trevino
Theses and Dissertations
Coral Reef ecosystems have degraded over years due to a variety of environmental issues such as ocean acidification. The continuous stress has detrimental effects on coral reef ecosystems that can possibly lead to the loss of the ecosystem. Our research aims to construct a prototype of an artificial reef by consolidating dredge sand from the ship channels of South Texas. Consolidation is achieved through an aluminum polytetrafluoroethylene self-propagating high temperature process that yields a solid formation to mimic the physical properties of coral reef structures. Using thermodynamic calculations, the variation of initial components was determined that reached an adiabatic temperature …
Investigating The Application Of Multibeam Sonar And Remotely Operated Vehicles In Fish Population Monitoring On Artificial Reefs, Robert Figueroa-Downing
Investigating The Application Of Multibeam Sonar And Remotely Operated Vehicles In Fish Population Monitoring On Artificial Reefs, Robert Figueroa-Downing
Theses and Dissertations
Implementation of ROVs and multibeam imaging sonar in fisheries research has the potential to improve the accuracy and efficiency of current monitoring practices. This study aimed to 1) compare ROV video and diver abundance estimates; 2) evaluate fish length measurement accuracy from sonar; 3) investigate key differentiating sonar characteristics. Results indicate: 1) Diver surveys captured greater diversity of species; survey methods were comparable with regards to conspicuous species (r = 0.089, p = 0.074); 2) Length measurements from multibeam imaging sonar had high predictive power (Rho = 0.998; p < 0.001) of actual standard lengths and; 3) variations between samples were largely due to swim bladder echo, relative position of the target fish, and schooling characteristics. We conclude that 1) ROVs are less apt at observing cryptic species; 2) The Blueview P900-90 sonar can accurately measure fish length; and 3) swim bladder morphology plays an important role in fish identification.