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<meta content="Habeeb, Rebecca L." name="eprints.creators_name" />
<meta content="Johnson, Craig R." name="eprints.creators_name" />
<meta content="Wotherspoon, Simon" name="eprints.creators_name" />
<meta content="Mumby, Peter J." name="eprints.creators_name" />
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<meta content="Craig.Johnson@utas.edu.au" name="eprints.creators_id" />
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<meta content="Optimal scales to observe habitat dynamics: a coral reef example" name="eprints.title" />
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<meta content="characteristic length scale; coral reef; ecosystem trends; habitat; monitoring; remote sensing; scale; spatial; spatial and temporal dynamics" name="eprints.keywords" />
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<meta content="A new technique to estimate the characteristic length scales (CLSs) of real
ecological systems provides an objective means to identify the optimal scale(s) of observation
to best detect underlying dynamical trends. Application of the technique to natural systems
has focused on identifying appropriate scales to measure the dynamics of species as descriptors
of community and ecosystem dynamics. However, ecosystem monitoring is often based not on
assessing single species, but on species assemblages, functional groups, or habitat types. We
asked whether the concept of CLSs based on dynamic interactions among species could be
extended to examine interactions among habitat types and thus to identify optimal scales for
observing habitat dynamics. A time series of three spatial maps of benthic habitats on a
Caribbean coral reef was constructed from aerial photographs, Compact Airborne
Spectrographic Imager (CASI) images, and IKONOS satellite images, providing the short
time sequence required for this technique. We estimated the CLS based on the dynamics of
three distinct habitat types: dense stands of seagrass, sparse stands of seagrass, and Montastrea
patch reefs. Despite notable differences in the areal extent of and relative change in these
habitats over the 21-year observation period, analyses based on each habitat type indicated a
similar CLS of ~300 m. We interpret the consistency of CLSs among habitats to indicate that
the dynamics of the three habitat types are linked. The results are encouraging, and they
indicate that CLS techniques can be used to identify the appropriate scale at which to monitor
ecosystem trends on the basis of the dynamics of only one of a disparate suite of habitat types." name="eprints.abstract" />
<meta content="2007" name="eprints.date" />
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<meta content="Ecological Applications" name="eprints.publication" />
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<meta content="Bythell, J. C., Z. M. Hillis-Starr, and C. S. Rogers. 2000. Local
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3:385-397." name="eprints.referencetext" />
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<meta content="A new technique to estimate the characteristic length scales (CLSs) of real
ecological systems provides an objective means to identify the optimal scale(s) of observation
to best detect underlying dynamical trends. Application of the technique to natural systems
has focused on identifying appropriate scales to measure the dynamics of species as descriptors
of community and ecosystem dynamics. However, ecosystem monitoring is often based not on
assessing single species, but on species assemblages, functional groups, or habitat types. We
asked whether the concept of CLSs based on dynamic interactions among species could be
extended to examine interactions among habitat types and thus to identify optimal scales for
observing habitat dynamics. A time series of three spatial maps of benthic habitats on a
Caribbean coral reef was constructed from aerial photographs, Compact Airborne
Spectrographic Imager (CASI) images, and IKONOS satellite images, providing the short
time sequence required for this technique. We estimated the CLS based on the dynamics of
three distinct habitat types: dense stands of seagrass, sparse stands of seagrass, and Montastrea
patch reefs. Despite notable differences in the areal extent of and relative change in these
habitats over the 21-year observation period, analyses based on each habitat type indicated a
similar CLS of ~300 m. We interpret the consistency of CLSs among habitats to indicate that
the dynamics of the three habitat types are linked. The results are encouraging, and they
indicate that CLS techniques can be used to identify the appropriate scale at which to monitor
ecosystem trends on the basis of the dynamics of only one of a disparate suite of habitat types." name="DC.description" />
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<h1 class="ep_tm_pagetitle">Optimal scales to observe habitat dynamics: a coral reef example</h1>
<p style="margin-bottom: 1em" class="not_ep_block"><span class="person_name">Habeeb, Rebecca L.</span> and <span class="person_name">Johnson, Craig R.</span> and <span class="person_name">Wotherspoon, Simon</span> and <span class="person_name">Mumby, Peter J.</span> (2007) <xhtml:em>Optimal scales to observe habitat dynamics: a coral reef example.</xhtml:em> Ecological Applications, 17 (3). pp. 641-647.</p><p style="margin-bottom: 1em" class="not_ep_block"></p><table style="margin-bottom: 1em" class="not_ep_block"><tr><td valign="top" style="text-align:center"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1053/1/2007_Habeeb%2C_Johnson%2C_Wotherspoon_%26_Mumby_Ecol_Applications.pdf"><img alt="[img]" src="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png" class="ep_doc_icon" border="0" /></a></td><td valign="top"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/1053/1/2007_Habeeb%2C_Johnson%2C_Wotherspoon_%26_Mumby_Ecol_Applications.pdf"><span class="ep_document_citation">PDF</span></a> - Full text restricted - Requires a PDF viewer<br />276Kb</td><td><form method="get" accept-charset="utf-8" action="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/request_doc"><input accept-charset="utf-8" value="1233" name="docid" type="hidden" /><div class=""><input value="Request a copy" name="_action_null" class="ep_form_action_button" onclick="return EPJS_button_pushed( '_action_null' )" type="submit" /> </div></form></td></tr></table><p style="margin-bottom: 1em" class="not_ep_block">Official URL: <a href="http://www.esajournals.org/esaonline/?request=get-document&issn=1051-0761&volume=017&issue=03&page=0641">http://www.esajournals.org/esaonline/?request=get-document&issn=1051-0761&volume=017&issue=03&page=0641</a></p><div class="not_ep_block"><h2>Abstract</h2><p style="padding-bottom: 16px; text-align: left; margin: 1em auto 0em auto">A new technique to estimate the characteristic length scales (CLSs) of real
ecological systems provides an objective means to identify the optimal scale(s) of observation
to best detect underlying dynamical trends. Application of the technique to natural systems
has focused on identifying appropriate scales to measure the dynamics of species as descriptors
of community and ecosystem dynamics. However, ecosystem monitoring is often based not on
assessing single species, but on species assemblages, functional groups, or habitat types. We
asked whether the concept of CLSs based on dynamic interactions among species could be
extended to examine interactions among habitat types and thus to identify optimal scales for
observing habitat dynamics. A time series of three spatial maps of benthic habitats on a
Caribbean coral reef was constructed from aerial photographs, Compact Airborne
Spectrographic Imager (CASI) images, and IKONOS satellite images, providing the short
time sequence required for this technique. We estimated the CLS based on the dynamics of
three distinct habitat types: dense stands of seagrass, sparse stands of seagrass, and Montastrea
patch reefs. Despite notable differences in the areal extent of and relative change in these
habitats over the 21-year observation period, analyses based on each habitat type indicated a
similar CLS of ~300 m. We interpret the consistency of CLSs among habitats to indicate that
the dynamics of the three habitat types are linked. The results are encouraging, and they
indicate that CLS techniques can be used to identify the appropriate scale at which to monitor
ecosystem trends on the basis of the dynamics of only one of a disparate suite of habitat types.</p></div><table style="margin-bottom: 1em" cellpadding="3" class="not_ep_block" border="0"><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Item Type:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">Article</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Additional Information:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">Copyright by the Ecological Society of America</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Keywords:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">characteristic length scale; coral reef; ecosystem trends; habitat; monitoring; remote sensing; scale; spatial; spatial and temporal dynamics</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Subjects:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row"><a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/view/subjects/270702.html">270000 Biological Sciences > 270700 Ecology and Evolution > 270702 Marine and Estuarine Ecology (incl. Marine Ichthyology)</a></td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Collections:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">UNSPECIFIED</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">ID Code:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">1053</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Deposited By:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row"><span class="ep_name_citation"><span class="person_name">Professor Craig R. Johnson</span></span></td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Deposited On:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">18 May 2007</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">Last Modified:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row">04 Feb 2008 15:56</td></tr><tr><th valign="top" class="ep_row">ePrint Statistics:</th><td valign="top" class="ep_row"><a target="ePrintStats" href="/es/index.php?action=show_detail_eprint;id=1053;">View statistics for this ePrint</a></td></tr></table><p align="right">Repository Staff Only: <a href="http://eprints.utas.edu.au/cgi/users/home?screen=EPrint::View&eprintid=1053">item control page</a></p>
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