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High-resolution wave data for improving marine habitat suitability models
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William Bennett ,
Harshinie Karunarathna ,
Dominic Reeve ,
Richard Unsworth ,
James Bull
Frontiers in Marine Science, Volume: 9
Swansea University Authors:
Chiara Bertelli , William Bennett , Harshinie Karunarathna , Dominic Reeve , Richard Unsworth , James Bull
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DOI (Published version): 10.3389/fmars.2022.1004829
Abstract
Habitat suitability modelling (HSM) is a tool that is increasingly being used to help guide decision making for conservation management. It can also be used to focus efforts of restoration in our oceans. To improve on model performance, the best available environmental data along with species presen...
| Published in: | Frontiers in Marine Science |
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| ISSN: | 2296-7745 |
| Published: |
Frontiers Media SA
2023
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| Online Access: |
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| URI: | https://cronfa.swan.ac.uk/Record/cronfa62254 |
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| Abstract: |
Habitat suitability modelling (HSM) is a tool that is increasingly being used to help guide decision making for conservation management. It can also be used to focus efforts of restoration in our oceans. To improve on model performance, the best available environmental data along with species presence data is needed. Marine habitats tend to have ecological niches defined by physical environmental conditions and of particular importance for shallow water species is wave energy. In this study we examined the relative improvements to HSM outputs that could be achieved by producing high-resolution Delft-3D modelled wave height data to see if model predictions at a fine-scale can be improved. Seagrasses were used as an exemplar and comparisons at fine-scale showed considerable differences in the area predicted suitable for seagrass growth and greatly increased the importance of waves as a predictor variable when compared with open-source low resolution wave energy data. |
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| Keywords: |
seagrass, restoration, habitat suitability modelling, Delft-3D wave modelling, Zostera marina |
| College: |
Faculty of Science and Engineering |
| Funders: |
NERC, NE/V01711X/1 |