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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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9 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2020

A Benthic Habitat Monitoring Approach for Marine and Hydrokinetic Sites (Final Technical Report)

This final technical report summarizes the work completed as part of the Standardized and Cost-Effective Benthic Habitat Mapping and Monitoring Tools for MHK Environmental Assessments project funded by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) under contract DE-EE007826 to Integral Consulting Inc. The overall goal of this project was to demonstrate a consistent, repeatable, and semi-automated seafloor and sediment mapping approach for rapidly characterizing benthic physical and biological/habitat conditions to support marine environmental assessments for marine and hydrokinetic energy sites. The approach evaluated combines sediment profile imaging and plan view (SPI/PV) technology with multibeam echosounder surveys as an effective and low-cost benthic habitat mapping protocol. A key innovation was the development of a semi-automated computer vision system that standardizes the extraction of data from the SPI/PV images. Other elements of the project were SPI camera hardware modifications, including the design and fabrication of a prototype “power” SPI camera to improve camera prism penetration in firm substrates, and outreach to agency regulators and other stakeholders on this habitat mapping approach. This technical report consists of five main subsections that summarize: 1) the benthic mapping approach; 2) benthic mapping results from the three areas’ surveys; 3) the development and performance of the image processing algorithms; 4) SPI camera hardware improvements and prototype testing; and 5) the regulatory outreach efforts.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗
DOE OSTI2020

Mapping of Benthic Habitats at Marine Renewable Energy Sites Using Multibeam Echosounder and Sediment Profile Imaging Technologies

Objectives/Scope: The goal of this work was to develop a consistent and semi-automated seafloor survey method for generating high-resolution, benthic habitat maps for environmental assessments and monitoring of marine renewable energy sites. Sediment profile and plan view imaging (SPI/PV) technology was combined with multibeam bathymetry and acoustic backscatter methods to demonstrate a rapid, cost-effective benthic mapping protocol. A key technical innovation of this project was the development of an image processing platform that automatically measures key features from the images. Methods: Multibeam echosounder (MBES) acoustic and SPI/PV surveys were conducted at three coastal areas off the U.S. west coast, including the PacWave South energy test site off of Newport, Oregon. Point data on physical and biological sediment conditions obtained from the SPI/PV imagery were used to efficiently ground-truth the high-resolution MBES bathymetry and backscatter mosaics. The SPI camera is an optical corer that obtains an undisturbed 21 by 15 cm, high-resolution, cross-sectional image of the sediment–water interface and upper sediment column. The plan view camera attached to the SPI camera frame captures a downward looking view of the seabed immediately before the SPI image is obtained. As part of this project, we developed a computer vision image processing platform (iSPI) that uses deep convolutional neural networks and other approaches to automatically identify and measure key features in the images, such as grain size and surface relief. Results: Detailed benthic habitat maps were generated using this mapping approach for three different marine settings. The sites mapped included a silt-dominated embayment; a sloping, nearshore, transitional very fine to coarse sand bottom; and a medium, sand-dominated continental shelf marine energy test site. In each case, acoustic and imaging surveys were completed in less than week, and detailed benthic habitat maps were generated within 60 days. The results were placed within the Coastal and Marine Ecological Classification Standard (CMECS) habitat mapping framework, and various combinations of the bathymetry, backscatter, and SPI and PV data were used to generate CMECS component maps. Novel Information: This project developed and demonstrated a repeatable and cost-effective approach for efficiently mapping benthic habitat conditions over broad areas of the seafloor by combining state-of-the-art acoustic and imaging techniques. The primary survey tools used in this project have been used previously in both the offshore renewable (wind) and oil and gas sectors to map and monitor benthic environments. This project’s innovations include 1) the focused use of high-resolution SPI/PV imagery to ground-truth acoustic mosaics, and 2) the development of a computer automated image analysis processing tool that both streamlines and standardizes the generation of data from the imagery and makes the data extraction process more cost-effective and repeatable.

13 HYDRO ENERGY↗
DOE OSTI2022

Triton Field Trials - Changes in Habitats, a Literature Review of Monitoring Technologies

Marine energy devices are installed in highly dynamic environments and have the potential to affect benthic and pelagic habitats around them. Regulatory bodies often require baseline characterization and/or post-installation monitoring to determine whether changes in these habitats are being observed. However, a great diversity of technologies is available for surveying and sampling marine habitats. Selecting the most suitable instrument to identify and measure changes in habitats at marine energy sites can become a daunting task. We conducted a thorough review of journal articles, survey reports, and grey literature to extract information about the technologies used, the data collection and processing methods, and the performance and effectiveness of these instruments. We examined documents related to marine energy development, offshore wind farms, oil and gas offshore sites, and other marine industries around the world over the last 20 years, as well as national and international guidelines for surveying habitats around offshore activities. A total of 120 different technologies were identified across six main habitat categories: seafloor, sediment, infauna, epifauna, pelagic, and biofouling. The technologies were organized into 12 broad technology classes: acoustic, corer, dredge, grab, hook and line, net and trawl, plate, remote sensing, scrape samples, trap, visual, and others. Visual was the most common and the most diverse technology class, with applications across all six habitat categories. Sampling designs varied considerably among the reviewed studies but transect was the predominant design for surveying seafloor, epifauna, and pelagic habitats. The most common data analyses were univariate and multivariate statistical analyses aimed at calculating and comparing biodiversity indices, characterizing faunal assemblages or sediment classes, or modeling the distribution of animals related to abiotic parameters. Technologies and sampling methods adaptable and designed to work efficiently in energetic environments have greater success at marine energy sites. In addition, sampling designs and statistical analyses should be carefully thought through to identify differences in faunal assemblages and spatiotemporal changes in habitats.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗
DOE OSTI2022

What’s in My Toolkit? A Review of Technologies for Assessing Changes in Habitats Caused by Marine Energy Development

Marine energy devices are installed in highly dynamic environments and have the potential to affect the benthic and pelagic habitats around them. Regulatory bodies often require baseline characterization and/or post-installation monitoring to determine whether changes in these habitats are being observed. However, a great diversity of technologies is available for surveying and sampling marine habitats, and selecting the most suitable instrument to identify and measure changes in habitats at marine energy sites can become a daunting task. We conducted a thorough review of journal articles, survey reports, and grey literature to extract information about the technologies used, the data collection and processing methods, and the performance and effectiveness of these instruments. We examined documents related to marine energy development, offshore wind farms, oil and gas offshore sites, and other marine industries around the world over the last 20 years. A total of 120 different technologies were identified across six main habitat categories: seafloor, sediment, infauna, epifauna, pelagic, and biofouling. The technologies were organized into 12 broad technology classes: acoustic, corer, dredge, grab, hook and line, net and trawl, plate, remote sensing, scrape samples, trap, visual, and others. Visual was the most common and the most diverse technology class, with applications across all six habitat categories. Technologies and sampling methods that are designed for working efficiently in energetic environments have greater success at marine energy sites. In addition, sampling designs and statistical analyses should be carefully thought through to identify differences in faunal assemblages and spatiotemporal changes in habitats.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗
DOE OSTI2020

Artificial Intelligence and Computer Vision for Cost-Effective Benthic Habitat Characterizations

Machine learning applied to computer vision and pattern recognition is a type of artificial intelligence that has advanced rapidly in the last 10 to 15 years, spurred forward by breakthroughs in deep convolutional neural networks. These state-of-the-art methods are poised to become widely used in environmental monitoring applications as a result of the increasing abundance of data available from different imaging platforms (e.g., fixed-point cameras, drone surveys, high-resolution satellite data) that can be analyzed to observe, model, and understand environmental conditions. Computer vision and pattern recognition (CVPR) tools advance our ability to use imagery and camera-based tools in cost-effective ways for environmental monitoring. Although these techniques offer great potential, some challenges remain, such as the need for large sets of labeled images for model training and validation and optimized hardware and software to ensure that the models can be trained effectively and in a reasonable amount of time. Here, we have overcome many of these rate-limiting challenges by using a diverse image library built across multiple projects coupled with staff expertise and onsite computing resources. We are working toward a fully automated SPI processing system and also are moving to develop CVPR analytical tools for other imaging platforms and data sets.

02 PETROLEUM↗
DOE OSTI2023

Action Effectiveness Monitoring and Research of Dredged Material Placement at Woodland Islands (Final Report)

Benthic invertebrates play critical ecosystem roles including the breakdown of organic matter, sediment mixing, and nutrient cycling. In the lower Columbia River and estuary, benthic invertebrates provide a foraging resource for threatened and endangered juvenile salmon. Driven by the goal to create low velocity, shallow water, and riparian shrub habitats to benefit juvenile salmon, the USACE placed 237,000 CY of dredged material, resulting in the deposition of 13.5 acres of sand on the off-channel margins at Woodland Islands. The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) designed and implemented an action effectiveness research study to understand how dredged material placement at Woodland Islands affected sediment conditions and benthic invertebrate assemblages. A Before-After-Control-Impact, or BACI, study design was used to evaluate the response of environmental conditions and benthic invertebrates to dredged material placement. The design included one impact site and two control sites. Sampling occurred for two years prior to dredged material placement and two years after. Our study found that spatial variation was a significant factor for both environmental and biological response variables which suggests local conditions are important considerations for mechanisms affecting benthic assemblages. We found that off-channel habitats across all locations sampled were producing benthic invertebrates, many of which are common prey items for juvenile salmon and steelhead—e.g., insects, chironomids, crustaceans, and corophium. There was a significant BACI effect (i.e., an effect at the dredged material placement site, relative to conditions at the control sites) for concentration of carbon and ammonium in sediment, but not for phosphorous concentrations or for percent sand. The estimated abundance for the three invertebrate response variables—total abundance, total chironomid abundance, and total corophium abundance—was significantly lower at the impact site after dredged material placement, compared to the control sites. At Woodland Island, the estimated mean abundance for all invertebrates combined decreased 28% after dredged material placement. Estimated mean abundances of chironomid and corophium decreased by 8% and 88%, respectively. While invertebrate abundances were lower after dredged placement, the composition of benthic invertebrates was similar before and after placement suggesting that as the new habitat feature evolves recolonization will likely follow. These findings provide a foundation for understanding potential benefits and consequences of repurposing dredged material for habitat creation in the LCRE.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2024

Animal displacement from marine energy development: Mechanisms and consequences

For marine wave and tidal energy to successfully contribute to global renewable energy goals and climate change mitigation, marine energy projects need to expand beyond small deployments to large-scale arrays. However, with large-scale projects come potential environmental effects not observed at the scales of single devices and small arrays. One of these effects is the risk of displacing marine animals from their preferred habitats or their migration routes, which may increase with the size of arrays and location. Many marine animals may be susceptible to some level of displacement once large marine energy arrays are increasingly integrated into the seascape, including large migratory animals, non-migratory pelagic animals with large home ranges, and benthic and demersal mobile organisms with more limited ranges, among many others. Yet, research around the mechanisms and effects of displacement have been hindered by the lack of clarity within the international marine energy community regarding the definition of displacement, how it occurs, its consequences, species of concern, and methods to investigate the outcomes. This review paper leveraged lessons learned from other industries, such as offshore development, to establish a definition of displacement in the marine energy context, explore which functional groups of marine animals may be affected and in what way, and identify pathways for investigating displacement through modeling and monitoring. In the marine energy context, we defined displacement as the outcome of one of three mechanisms (i.e., attraction, avoidance, and exclusion) triggered by an animal's response to one or more stressors acting as a disturbance, with various consequences at the individual through population levels. The knowledge gaps highlighted in this study will help the regulatory and scientific communities prepare for mitigating, observing, measuring, and characterizing displacement of various animals around marine energy arrays in order to prevent irreversible consequences.

16 TIDAL AND WAVE POWER↗
DOE OSTI2020

Evaluating the Long-Term Ecological Responses to Riparian Ecosystem Restoration at the Fort Benning, Georgia Military Installation

Riparian and instream restorations are commonly implemented to improve ecosystem condition. However, very few restoration activities are monitored for multiple years to assess long-term effectiveness. At the Department of Defense’s Fort Benning Military Installation (FBMI) in west-central Georgia, two experimental restoration projects (ephemeral drainage revitalization and instream habitat augmentation [i.e., coarse woody debris (CWD) additions]) were implemented ~14 years ago with the goal of reducing environmental impacts of military training activities. A SERDP project found that instream restoration improved some aspects of ecosystem function and community structure but not others. The objective of the current study was to re-evaluate the effect of these restoration practices on stream ecosystem processes ~14 years after implementation.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗
DOE OSTI2023

Evaluating the effectiveness of M-AMBI with other biotic indexes in a temperate estuary

Need for a scalable and widely applicable index has been increasingly important. This study evaluates the applicability of the M-AMBI, a potential comprehensive index, at small spatial scales. M-AMBI was compared to regional indices (EMAP-E and GOM B-IBI), assessing response to natural environmental gradients and low oxygen stress. Results indicate poor agreement between indices with M-AMBI and GOM B-IBI showing positive correlation but significant disagreement in habitat condition. EMAP-E had no agreement. Indices showed similar patterns of better habitat scores in higher salinities. M-AMBI also showed a negative relationship with sediment organic matter and total nitrogen. DO influenced all indices with M-AMBI the most sensitive. However, mismatches between DO and index score were observed further calibration may be needed before adoption into programs. Altogether, the M-AMBI demonstrates potential at smaller, local scales, but additional studies are needed to validate its performance in different coastal environments and under different conditions.

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES↗