Abstracts Category : Other

Application of Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) to remotely operated vehicle (ROV) video data for enhanced geospatial analysis of deep sea environments

by Caitlin A Ruby

The Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) provides a comprehensive framework of common terminology for organizing physical, chemical, biological, and geological information about marine ecosystems. Federally endorsed as a dynamic content standard, all federally funded data must be compliant by 2018; however, applying CMECS to deep sea datasets and underwater video have not been extensively examined. The presented research demonstrates the extent to which CMECS can be applied to deep sea benthic habitats, assesses the feasibility of applying CMECS to remotely operated vehicle (ROV) video data in near-real-time, and establishes best practices for mapping environmental aspects and observed deep sea habitats as viewed by the ROVs forward-facing camera. All data were collected during 2014 in the Northern Gulf of Mexico by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administrations (NOAA) ROV <i>Deep Discoverer</i> and ship <i>Okeanos Explorer</i>. Advisors/Committee Members: William H. Cooke, III (committee member), Qingmin Meng (committee member), Adam Skarke (committee member).