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Lacunarity as a tool for assessing landscape configuration over time and informing long-term monitoring: an example using seagrass

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Abstract

Context

Seagrasses are submerged marine plants that have been declining globally at increasing rates. Natural resource managers rely on monitoring programs to detect and understand changes in these ecosystems. Technological advancements are allowing for the development of patch-level seagrass maps, which can be used to explore seagrass meadow spatial patterns.

Objectives

Our research questions involved comparing lacunarity, a measure of landscape configuration, for seagrass to assess cross-site differences in areal coverage and spatial patterns through time. We also discussed how lacunarity could help natural resource managers with monitoring program development and restoration decisions and evaluation.

Methods

We assessed lacunarity of seagrass meadows for various box sizes (0.0001 ha to 400.4 ha) around Cat Island and Ship Island, Mississippi (USA). For Cat Island, we used seagrass data from 2011 to 2014. For Ship Island, we used seagrass data for seven dates between 1963 and 2014.

Results

Cat Island, which had more continuous seagrass meadows, had lower lacunarity (i.e., denser coverage) compared to Ship Island, which had patchier seagrass beds. For Ship Island, we found a signal of disturbance and path toward recovery from Hurricane Camille in 1969. Finally, we highlighted how lacunarity curves could be used as one of multiple considerations for designing monitoring programs, which are commonly used for seagrass monitoring.

Conclusions

Lacunarity can help quantify spatial pattern dynamics, but more importantly, it can assist with natural resource management by defining fragmentation and potential scales for monitoring. This approach could be applied to other environments, especially other coastal ecosystems.

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Data availability

Data used for this study are publicly archived in Enwright et al. (2022), Enwright and Mouton (2022), and Carter et al. (2011).

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Acknowledgements

This study was part of the Mississippi Coastal Improvements Program Monitoring and Adaptive Management Program. We thank the Mississippi Coastal Improvements Program Monitoring and Adaptive Management Program’s Technical Advisory Group, especially Martha Segura (National Park Service Gulf Inventory and Monitoring Network), Safra Altman (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Engineer Research Development Center), Eve Eisemann (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Engineer Research Development Center), and Elizabeth Godsey (U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District) for their review of the methodology and feedback for this effort. We thank Wyatt Cheney (Cheney Consulting under contract to the U.S. Geological Survey, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center), William SooHoo (Cherokee Nation System Solutions), Spencer Stelly (Stelly Consulting under contract to the U.S. Geological Survey, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center), and Kelly Mouton (Cherokee Nation System Solutions) for their assistance with developing and refining the 2011 and 2014 seagrass maps associated with this study. We thank Megan Le Peyre (U.S. Geological Survey, Louisiana Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit) and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments on the manuscript. Finally, we thank the National Park Service, Gulf Coast Inventory and Monitoring Network, and Barry A. Vittor and Associates, Inc., for providing ground reference data for assessing the accuracy of the 2011 and 2014 seagrass maps. Any use of trade, firm, or product names is for descriptive purposes only and does not imply endorsement by the U.S. Government.

Funding

This study was funded by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Mississippi Coastal Improvement Program and the U.S. Geological Survey Ecosystem Mission Area.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. U.S. Geological Survey, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center, 700 Cajundome Boulevard, Lafayette, LA, 70506, USA

    Nicholas M. Enwright

  2. School of Ocean Science and Engineering, The University of Southern Mississippi, 703 E. Beach Drive, Ocean Springs, MS, 39564, USA

    Kelly M. Darnell

  3. School of Coastal Resilience and Gulf Coast Geospatial Center, The University of Southern Mississippi, 730 E. Beach Boulevard, Long Beach, MS, 39560, USA

    Gregory A. Carter

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NE and KD designed the study. GC provided historical data for study. NE conducted the analysis and wrote the manuscript. KD and GC provided guidance in the development and implementation of the research and reviewed/edited the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Nicholas M. Enwright.

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Enwright, N.M., Darnell, K.M. & Carter, G.A. Lacunarity as a tool for assessing landscape configuration over time and informing long-term monitoring: an example using seagrass. Landsc Ecol 37, 2689–2705 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-022-01499-5

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