A spatial analysis of seagrass habitat and community diversity in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area

Abstract The Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA) in north eastern Australia spans 2500 km of coastline and covers an area of ~ 350,000 km2. It includes one of the world’s largest seagrass resources. To provide a foundation to monitor, establish trends and manage the protection of seagras...

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Autores principales:	Alex B. Carter, Catherine Collier, Emma Lawrence, Michael A. Rasheed, Barbara J. Robson, Rob Coles
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Nature Portfolio 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/ea23dada31da4806adf2c9a9fc8a3d5c
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:ea23dada31da4806adf2c9a9fc8a3d5c2021-11-21T12:17:38ZA spatial analysis of seagrass habitat and community diversity in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area10.1038/s41598-021-01471-42045-2322https://doaj.org/article/ea23dada31da4806adf2c9a9fc8a3d5c2021-11-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-01471-4https://doaj.org/toc/2045-2322Abstract The Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA) in north eastern Australia spans 2500 km of coastline and covers an area of ~ 350,000 km2. It includes one of the world’s largest seagrass resources. To provide a foundation to monitor, establish trends and manage the protection of seagrass meadows in the GBRWHA we quantified potential seagrass community extent using six random forest models that include environmental data and seagrass sampling history. We identified 88,331 km2 of potential seagrass habitat in intertidal and subtidal areas: 1111 km2 in estuaries, 16,276 km2 in coastal areas, and 70,934 km2 in reef areas. Thirty-six seagrass community types were defined by species assemblages within these habitat types using multivariate regression tree models. We show that the structure, location and distribution of the seagrass communities is the result of complex environmental interactions. These environmental conditions include depth, tidal exposure, latitude, current speed, benthic light, proportion of mud in the sediment, water type, water temperature, salinity, and wind speed. Our analysis will underpin spatial planning, can be used in the design of monitoring programs to represent the diversity of seagrass communities and will facilitate our understanding of environmental risk to these habitats.Alex B. CarterCatherine CollierEmma LawrenceMichael A. RasheedBarbara J. RobsonRob ColesNature PortfolioarticleMedicineRScienceQENScientific Reports, Vol 11, Iss 1, Pp 1-19 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Alex B. Carter Catherine Collier Emma Lawrence Michael A. Rasheed Barbara J. Robson Rob Coles A spatial analysis of seagrass habitat and community diversity in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area
description	Abstract The Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA) in north eastern Australia spans 2500 km of coastline and covers an area of ~ 350,000 km2. It includes one of the world’s largest seagrass resources. To provide a foundation to monitor, establish trends and manage the protection of seagrass meadows in the GBRWHA we quantified potential seagrass community extent using six random forest models that include environmental data and seagrass sampling history. We identified 88,331 km2 of potential seagrass habitat in intertidal and subtidal areas: 1111 km2 in estuaries, 16,276 km2 in coastal areas, and 70,934 km2 in reef areas. Thirty-six seagrass community types were defined by species assemblages within these habitat types using multivariate regression tree models. We show that the structure, location and distribution of the seagrass communities is the result of complex environmental interactions. These environmental conditions include depth, tidal exposure, latitude, current speed, benthic light, proportion of mud in the sediment, water type, water temperature, salinity, and wind speed. Our analysis will underpin spatial planning, can be used in the design of monitoring programs to represent the diversity of seagrass communities and will facilitate our understanding of environmental risk to these habitats.
format	article
author	Alex B. Carter Catherine Collier Emma Lawrence Michael A. Rasheed Barbara J. Robson Rob Coles
author_facet	Alex B. Carter Catherine Collier Emma Lawrence Michael A. Rasheed Barbara J. Robson Rob Coles
author_sort	Alex B. Carter
title	A spatial analysis of seagrass habitat and community diversity in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area
title_short	A spatial analysis of seagrass habitat and community diversity in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area
title_full	A spatial analysis of seagrass habitat and community diversity in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area
title_fullStr	A spatial analysis of seagrass habitat and community diversity in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area
title_full_unstemmed	A spatial analysis of seagrass habitat and community diversity in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area
title_sort	spatial analysis of seagrass habitat and community diversity in the great barrier reef world heritage area
publisher	Nature Portfolio
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/ea23dada31da4806adf2c9a9fc8a3d5c
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A spatial analysis of seagrass habitat and community diversity in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area

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