Innovations in Mapping Seagrass Health with Uncrewed Surface Vessels

Seagrass ecosystems are crucial to the health and biodiversity of coastal environments, but are facing significant threats from climate change, water quality degradation, and habitat loss. Coastal Monitoring Alliance has developed a USV equipped with an array of sensors and associated automated data processing to assess seagrass health using visual, physical, and biological metrics across diverse coastal habitats. Physical metrics include seagrass cover, canopy height, and above ground biomass derived from acoustic data. Visual mapping occurs from a near bed high resolution camera. Net ecosystem metabolism is the core biological variable that can be spatially mapped and shows the net production or respiration of oxygen by the benthic community. This innovative methodological approach leverages modern technology to provide comprehensive, reliable, and cost-effective data, facilitating better-informed decision-making in environmental management and policy. Field data from Chesapeake Bay collected in 2023 and 2024 validated the USV's measurements against traditional methods.