• ALGAE
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.83-90
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• 2008

Eelgrass beds are very productive and provide nursery functions for a variety of fish and shellfish species. Management for the conservation of eelgrass beds along the Korean coasts is critical, and requires comprehensive strategies such as vegetation mapping. We suggest a mapping method to spatial distribution and quantify of eelgrass beds using a digital echosounder. Echosounding data were collected from the northeast part of Kwangyang Bay, on the south of Korea, in March, 2007. A transducer was attached to a boat equipped with a DGPS. The boat completed a transect survey scanning whole eelgrass beds of 11.7 km2 with a speed of 1.5-2 m s-1 (3-4 knot). The acoustic reflectivity of eelgrass allowed for detection and explicit measurements of canopy cover and height. The results showed that eelgrass bed was distributed in depth from 1.19 to 3.6 m (below MSL) and total dry weight biomass of 4.1 ton with a vegetation area of 4.05 km2. This technique was found to be an effective way to undertake the patch size and biomass of eelgrass over large areas as nondestructive sampling.