Macrophytes are important aquatic ecosystem primary producers. Environmental imbalance may cause their rapid growth. Thus, collecting data related to submerged macrophytes can favor water body management. Since a great physical effort is required to sample this vegetation, a hydro-acoustic technique has been appropriate to study submerged macrophytes. Evaluating data types generated by the echo-sounder and analyzing how it characterizes vegetation were established as objectives. A BioSonics DT-X echo-sounder linked to a GPS was used. The selected study area is a section of the Uberaba River, MG. The sampling consisted of transects, navigating from one side to another. Data processing provided information on the occurrence, depth, plant mean height, vegetation cover percentage, and position of the submerged macrophytes. Two other metrics - biovolume and effective canopy height - were also extracted from this data set. Imported to a Geographic Information System, collected data generated illustrative maps of the studied variables. In addition, four profiles were selected to analyze the differences in macrophyte representation methods. The echo-sounder proved to be an effective tool to develop submerged macrophyte mapping. Since the submerged vegetation is differently characterized by each measurement - canopy height, ECH or bio-volume - the choice of representation depends on the application desired.
Egeria densa; Egeria najas; echo-sounder; geo-processing; effective canopy height; bio-volume
