A Monte Carlo experiment for measuring acoustic properties of macroalgae living tissue

A methodology is developed to measure ex situ ultrasonic velocity of submerged aquatic vegetation tissue, in particular, macroalgae, in a nondestructive and efficient manner. An entire thallus is submerged in artificial seawater-filled tank through which many ultrasonic pulse-echo measurements are recorded while thallus parts are randomly displaced. Average sound speed of tissue is estimated from normal fit to extracted travel times given measured total volume fraction of tissue and travel time in water alone. For species Ecklonia radiata the resulting values for sound speed 1573.4 ± 4.8 m s(-1) and adiabatic compressibility 3.134 ×10(-10) ± 1.34 ×10(-11) Pa(-1) at 18 °C agree with more laborious and destructive methods.