The use of fractal geometry to determine the impact of inlet migration on the dynamics of a seagrass landscape

Abstract The use of fractal geometry to evaluate seagrass scaling behavior and the persistence of seagrass landscape patterns in relation to a disturbance is presented in this paper. Ria Formosa is a dynamic barrier-island system with a migrating inlet that creates a cyclic disturbance in a seagrass landscape. Seagrass patches which develop in the intertidal and shallow subtidal areas of Ria Formosa were digitized from a temporal sequence of aerial photographs, from 1980 to 1998. The methodology used to evaluate seagrass scaling behavior was proposed by Meltzer and Hastings (1992) , and relates the frequency distribution of patch size with the existence of patch size-related patterns. The Hurst exponent was calculated to assess the temporal persistence of the seagrass landscape. Univariate regression was used to investigate relations between temporal persistence and disturbance. The existence of patch size-related patterns was identified for all years suggesting shifts in generating processes occurring at different domains of scales in the seagrass landscape. The results enforces the idea that it is important to recognize the existence of diverse processes occurring at different domains of scales and, emphasizes the importance of evaluating issues of temporal and spatial scale while trying to understand changes in seagrass landscapes. The Hurst exponent estimates show that although the migration and relocation of the inlet affected this system the evolutionary trajectory of the seagrass landscape is persistent, i.e., the patch dynamics observed is stable. Furthermore, persistence values were different for differently sized patches, small patches having lower persistence then larger patches.