Classification of seagrass habitat structure as a reponse to wave exposure at Etoile Cay, Seychelles

Physical processes are thought to be a critical control on shallow water communities in the tropics. Past studies of seagrass community patterns have tended to be qualitative and failed to empirically link observed structures with the processes that govern them. Remote sensing technology, in the form of imagery acquired using a Compact Airborne Spectrographic Imager (CASI), has been used to construct a habitat map of seagrass communities at Etoile Cay, Amirantes, Seychelles. . A sim-ple definition of seagrass habitat structure, incorporating measures of complexity and heterogene-ity, has been investigated along a wave exposure gradient via moving window analysis over the classified habitat map. Both complexity and heterogeneity values are greatest at high to moderate levels of wave impact, supporting the intermediate disturbance hypothesis.