A primary BioBase EcoSound output is maps of aquatic plant biovolume. Percent vegetation biovolume (also known as Percent Volume Inhabited or PVI) represents the percent of the water column occupied by plant matter at each GPS location (point features). Biovolume is plant canopy height divided by water depth multiplied by 100 averaged over 5-30 pings bound to each GPS location along a travelled path. Biovolume ranges from 0% (bare bottom) to 100% (vegetation growth near the surface).
In addition to being visually intuitive, biovolume is an indicator of recreation nuisance conditions (e.g., surface growth), changes due to invasive species introductions (which typically grow closer to the surface than native species), and fish habitat conditions.
Numerous research studies have demonstrated that fish feeding success and prey availability depends on how many visual barriers are present in the water column. Some biovolume is needed to support prey communities and water quality (50% is a good rule of thumb), but too much (>80%) can promote overly abundant and stunted fish communities and create recreational nuisances. EcoSound produces a visually intuitive biovolume map and data that can help manage lakes for multiple uses.
For researchers interested in estimating aquatic plant variables of a known volumetric dimension for ecosystem models, plant height and water depth data can be exported to Geographic Information Systems (software) for estimation of the total volume of water in cubic meters in which plants grow.