Baiting the Lens: Analysis of Environment, Species, and Interactions in Seagrass Beds Using Baited Remote Underwater Video (BRUV)
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Authors
Ambrose, Georgia Kaley
Issue Date
2026-01-15
Type
Thesis
Language
en_US
Keywords
Ecology , Biology , Wildlife conservation , Academic theses
Alternative Title
Abstract
Seagrass ecosystems are one of the most biodiverse habitats on the planet, supporting a wide variety of species across many trophic levels. This ecosystem is under threat due to its proximity to coasts where seagrasses are negatively impacted by anthropogenic activities, such as eutrophication and rapidly warming waters. Over the last few decades, baited remote underwater video (BRUV) surveys have been implemented for studying underwater ecosystems, representing a non-extractive and non-destructive sampling method that can observe species diversity within different habitats. In this study, we aimed to determine the feasibility of utilizing BRUVs in an estuarine seagrass ecosystem to analyze the seasonal environmental parameters, species diversity, and species interactions. We performed a yearlong study, deploying a total of 200 BRUV units at varying distances from seagrass across three depth profiles in Tampa Bay. This study reveals that although environmental parameters varied across seasons, the number of species documented throughout the year did not significantly differ between the wet and dry seasons. When seagrass was detected (n = 37), we observed a greater number of species and broader representation of functional groups than when seagrass was absent (n = 110). A variety of species interactions were successfully observed between both conspecific and heterospecific assemblages, that were positively influenced by the presence of seagrass. Our deployment of BRUVs in Tampa Bay identified challenges, such as technological issues, difficulty in replication of deployment location due to seasonal tidal changes, and turbidity altering video clarity reducing the accuracy of species identification. Overall, this study resulted in 147 successful deployments supporting the feasibility of utilizing BRUVs to monitor seagrass ecosystems by measuring species diversity in a fluctuating coastal environment.
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This dissertation is protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States (Public Law 94-553, revised in 1976). Consistent with fair use as defined in the Copyright Laws, brief quotations from this material are allowed with proper acknowledgement. Use of the materials for financial gain with the author's expressed written permissions is not allowed.