A cost-effective technique for measuring relative water movement for studies of benthic organisms
S. N. Evans A and D. A. Abdo A B CA Department of Fisheries, Western Australian Fisheries and Marine Research Laboratories, PO Box 20, North Beach, WA 6920, Australia.
B Present Address: Australian Institute of Marine Science, PMB 3, Townsville MC, Qld 4810, Australia.
C Corresponding author. Email: d.abdo@aims.gov.au
Marine and Freshwater Research 61(11) 1327-1335 https://doi.org/10.1071/MF10007
Submitted: 15 January 2010 Accepted: 8 July 2010 Published: 16 November 2010
Abstract
Because water movement has been shown to affect the structure and community composition of the marine environment, the ability to monitor and record water movement is important in marine research. The present study describes a cost-effective, repeatable method for measuring relative water movement both spatially and temporally with an ‘off the shelf’ accelerometer. The technique involves suspending the accelerometer in the water column near the seafloor; movement of the apparatus by the water column is recorded as changes in acceleration relative to Earth’s gravity. Water movement recorded by this technique was highly correlated (r2 = 0.822, P < 0.01) with measurements from a recognised commercial device (wave-rider buoy). Deployment tests revealed that total wave height showed the most significant relationship (r2 = 0.83) with data from the technique. Use of the technique in a field situation allowed the detection of small-scale water-movement patterns within the Houtman Abrolhos Islands off Western Australia, and the quantification of the relative differences in water movement among coral-monitoring sites. Overall, the technique is a cost-effective way of obtaining basic long-term temporal water-movement data at small spatial scales (less than hundreds of metres).
Additional keywords: data logger, exposure, hydrodynamic, swell, wave action.
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Jason How, Teresa Coutts, Dr Samantha Bridgwood, Owen Young and the Masters and crew of PV Chalmers for assistance in the field. We are also grateful to Adrian Thomson for advice on statistical analysis and to Dr Alan Pearce, Dr Lynda Bellchambers, Dr Richard Evans and Jason How for discussions and corrections of the manuscript. The anonymous referees are also thanked for their comments. Funding was provided by the Department of Fisheries, Government of Western Australia. We also thank Joe Adelstein from Cornelian Bay Technologies and the Western Australian Department of Planning and Infrastructure for providing wave and tidal data.
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