A novel use of Stereo Baited Remote Underwater Video and Drop-Down Video for biodiversity and marine landscape mapping and prediction

PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0319355 April 3, 2025 18 / 23 PLOS ONE Marine landscape and biodiversity mapping using SBRUVs and DDV create detailed maps of substratum composition. This study provides a valuable tool for easy monitoring of critical substrata for conservation and restoration purposes which is especially beneficial given the poor state of benthic epifauna linked to fishing impacts [92] in the current climate where seabed integrity is under pressure. Supporting Information Table S1. Species list with conservation status, Scottish Marine Priority Marine Feature (PMF) and OSPAR location where species is in decline. (XSLX) Table S2. Results of ordinary kriging cross validation for each predicted substrata variable including Mean Error (ME), Mean Predicted Standard Error (MPSE), Mean Square Nor- malised Error (MSNE), Correlation Observed and Predicted (COP), and Correlation and Predicted Observed (CPR). (XSLX) Table S3. Camera surveying deployments carried out between 2013–2019, undertaken by University of Glasgow, Marine Scotland and NatureScot. (XSLX) Fig S1. Predictions and standard error maps of substrata. Kriged predictions of substrata coverage and corresponding kriging standard errors maps. (TIF) Fig S2. Map of South Arran MPA with 500 m x 500 m gridded overlay . Gridded overlay of the South Arran MPA with the predicted Inverse Simpsons Diversity (Fig 7). Orange bound- ing boxes outline MPA fishing restrictions (as described in Table 1) (TIF)

Fig 14. Comparison of predicted Inverse Simpson’s diversity index and original features from MPA designation. (A) Predicted biodiversity with increased biodiversity patches outlined (top 20% of Inverse Simpson’s Diversity Index, areas with value greater than threshold of 4.04). (B) Overlay of substrata features from NatureScot 2013 survey [52], showing extent of proposed features as of MPA establishment (Fig 1), with predicted Inverse Simpson’s Diversity Index. Four areas of predicted higher biodiversity are denoted as areas A-D. Orange boundaries denote areas of differing fishing restrictions as outlined in Table 2. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0319355.g014