Modeling of suitable habitat for small-scale seagrass restoration in tropical ecosystems

Abstract

The importance of seagrass meadows lies in the many ecosystem services they provide in coastal areas. These ecosystems have been experiencing an annual decline of 3% over the last 140 years, but in recent years, successful restoration has slowed their decline. However, site selection has been identified as the greatest difficulty; thus, the objective of this study was to develop a habitat suitability model that can increase restoration success. Two types of models were developed: a “general restoration” and a “species restoration” model (for large species – Enhalus acoroides, medium-sized species – Thalassia hemprichii or Cymodocea rotundata, small species – Halophila ovalis, and mixed species) using species distribution modeling based on physical and chemical variables. Data collection for model fitting was carried out throughout the year at Haad Chao Mai National Park, and the models were used to predict habitat suitability for restoration at three new sites. The results of the “general restoration” model suggest that all three sites are suitable for restoration, as the models predicted a mediocre (26–50%) to good (51–75%) probability of seagrasses occurrence. The “species restoration” model indicates that large species have an excellent (>75%) probability of occurrence at two out of the three sites, while medium-sized, small-sized and mixed species have a low (2–25%) to mediocre (26–50%) probability of occurrence, suggesting low to medium restoration potential. This study facilitated the creation of a viable tool for testing habitat suitability for restoration purposes in tropical regions.