Appraisal of seagrass aboveground biomass changes using satellite data within the tropical coastline of Peninsular Malaysia

Abstract

Seagrass habitats are crucial marine ecosystem component that affects the biophysical and chemical environment, providing nursery beds to various invertebrates, juvenile fish, and dugongs. This study focuses on mapping and monitoring changes in seagrass total above-ground biomass (STAGB) within the coastline of Peninsula Malaysia. The retrieval of the substrate leaving radiance was realized via was realized via Bottom Reflected Index (BRI) on Landsat ETM + visible bands. A strong relationship was established between BRI and seagrass biomass from in-situ samples (R² > 0.8, p < 0.001), hence enable mapping and detection of changes in STAGB. Other related coastal changes caused by natural and human activities, namely total fish landing and erosion were also correlated with STAGB, to demonstrate the impacts of these variables on the habitat. The results offer inputs for coastal zone management, apart shall fast-track the achievements of target 14.2 of SDG 14.

Keywords:

• Seagrass
• change detection
• fish landing
• remote sensing
• bottom reflected index

Acknowledgement

Acknowledgements of study facilities used at Geoscience and Digital Earth Centre (INSTeG), Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). Assistance of Dr Syarifuddin Misbari in assisting of the initial tasks in field samplings and pre-processing is also acknowledged.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the Ministry of Education Malaysia using FRGS grants, Vote no. 4F854 (Blue Carbon Seagrass Mapping by Remote Sensing) and Vote no. 5F211 (Remote Sensing-based Seagrass Ecosystem Services for Peninsular Malaysia Coastline).