INTERSEA: ECOLOGICAL AND EVOLUTIONARY DYNAMICS OF INTERTIDAL SEAGRASS AND ALGAL MEADOWS IN RESPONSE TO ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES

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Landscape metrics as indicators of coastal morphology: A multi-scale approach

Publication . Chefaoui, Rosa

In this study, the aim was to assess how commonly used landscape metrics perform as predictors ofcoastal shape. I examined nine metrics computed in FRAGSTATS to model the distribution of three coastalfeatures of the Iberian Peninsula: beaches, capes and gulfs. A multi-scale approach was used combiningthree extents, three resolutions and five moving-window sizes to implement generalized linear models(GLMs). This study has found that three landscape metrics (edge density, mean perimeter-area ratioand percentage of landscape) were good indicators for the three coastal features, while mean shapeindex was only for beaches and gulfs. Differences in performance were found among the coastal featuresand scales studied. GLMs revealed that the smallest extent (Levante coast) and resolutions (250 m2and1 km2) achieved better validation results, suggesting a higher suitability of these scales for detectingchanges in vectorial shorelines. Differences in sensitivity and specificity were also found among modelsestimated from different moving-window sizes. The present study confirms previous findings on the highmulticollinearity of landscape metrics, and the convenience of testing correlations in advance. Raster-based metrics computed from vectorial coastlines were effectively incorporated in spatial modeling. Thisresearch provides new insight into the use of coastal shape to predict species distributions and othercoastal processes, serving as a base for future studies.

2014Journal article

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