Impact of an eddy dipole of the Mozambique channel on mesopelagic organisms, highlighted by multifrequency backscatter classification.

The impact of a cyclonic (C), an anticyclonic (AC) eddy and transition zone (TZ), which is the area between the two eddies, on acoustic groups representing various mesopelagic organisms, was investigated using a semi-supervised multifrequency classification approach (hereafter, Escore algorithm). The Escore algorithm involved selecting regions of interest (ROIs) within multifrequency (18, 38, 70, and 120 kHz) echograms and classifying into four clusters or echo-classes using Sv differences (Sv18-38, Sv70-38, and Sv120-38). Acoustic densities and diel vertical migration strength varied between the AC, C, and TZ according to the frequency.

Three-dimensional conservation planning of fish biodiversity metrics to achieve the deep-sea 30×30 conservation target.

Accelerating rate of human impact and environmental change severely affects marine biodiversity and increases the urgency to implement the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) 30×30 plan for conserving 30% of sea areas by 2030. However, area-based conservation targets are complex to identify in a 3-dimensional (3D) ocean where deep-sea features such as seamounts have been seldom studied mostly due to challenging methodologies to implement at great depths. Yet, the use of emerging technologies, such as environmental DNA combined with modern modeling frameworks, could help address the problem.

Fine-scale vertical relationships between environmental conditions and sound scattering layers in the Southwestern Tropical Atlantic.

Ocean dynamics initiate the structure of nutrient income driving primary producers, and these, in turn, shape the distribution of subsequent trophic levels until the whole pelagic community reflects the physicochemical structure of the ocean. Despite the importance of bottom-up structuring in pelagic ecosystems, fine-scale studies of biophysical interactions along depth are scarce and challenging. To improve our understanding of such relationships, we analyzed the vertical structure of key oceanographic variables along with the distribution of acoustic biomass from multi-frequency acoustic data (38, 70, and 120 kHz) as a reference for pelagic fauna.

Comprehensive spatial distribution of tropical fish assemblages from multifrequency acoustics and video fulfils the island mass effect framework.

Tropical marine ecosystems are highly biodiverse and provide resources for small-scale fisheries and tourism. However, precise information on fish spatial distribution is lacking, which limits our ability to reconcile exploitation and conservation. We combined acoustics to video observations to provide a comprehensive description of fish distribution in a typical tropical environment, the Fernando de Noronha Archipelago (FNA) off Northeast Brazil.