Mapping spatial resources with GPS animal telemetry: foraging manatees locate seagrass beds in the Ten Thousand Islands, Florida, USA
Marine Ecology Progress Series
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Abstract
Turbid water conditions make the delineation and characterization of benthic habitats difficult by traditional in situ and remote sensing methods. Here, we develop and validate modeling and sampling methodology for detecting and characterizing seagrass beds by analyzing GPS telemetry records from radio-tagged manatees. Between October 2002 and October 2005, 14 manatees were tracked in the Ten Thousand Islands (TTI) in southwest Florida (USA) using Global Positioning System (GPS) tags. High density manatee use areas were found to occur off each island facing the open, nearshore waters of the Gulf of Mexico. We implemented a spatially stratified random sampling plan and used a camera-based sampling technique to observe and record bottom observations of seagrass and macroalgae presence and abundance. Five species of seagrass were identified in our study area: Halodule wrightii, Thalassia testudinum, Syringodium filiforme, Halophila engelmannii, and Halophila decipiens. A Bayesian model was developed to choose and parameterize a spatial process function that would describe the observed patterns of seagrass and macroalgae. The seagrasses were found in depths <2 m and in the higher manatee use strata, whereas macroalgae was found at moderate densities at all sampled depths and manatee use strata. The manatee spatial data showed a strong association with seagrass beds, a relationship that increased seagrass sampling efficiency. Our camera-based field sampling proved to be effective for assessing seagrass density and spatial coverage under turbid water conditions, and would be an effective monitoring tool to detect changes in seagrass beds.
Suggested Citation
Slone, D., Reid, J.P., Kenworthy, W., 2013, Mapping spatial resources with GPS animal telemetry: foraging manatees locate seagrass beds in the Ten Thousand Islands, Florida, USA: Marine Ecology Progress Series, v. 476, p. 285-299, https://doi.org/10.3354/meps10156.
Study Area
| Publication type | Article |
|---|---|
| Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
| Title | Mapping spatial resources with GPS animal telemetry: foraging manatees locate seagrass beds in the Ten Thousand Islands, Florida, USA |
| Series title | Marine Ecology Progress Series |
| DOI | 10.3354/meps10156 |
| Volume | 476 |
| Year Published | 2013 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Inter-Research Science Center |
| Publisher location | Lüneburg, Germany |
| Contributing office(s) | Southeast Ecological Science Center |
| Description | 15 p. |
| Larger Work Type | Article |
| Larger Work Subtype | Journal Article |
| Larger Work Title | Marine Ecology Progress Series |
| First page | 285 |
| Last page | 299 |
| Time Range Start | 2002-10-01 |
| Time Range End | 2005-10-31 |
| Country | United States |
| State | Florida |
| Other Geospatial | Ten Thousand Islands |