MULTISCALE INTEGRATION OF LANDSCAPE FEATURES WITH PLANT AND WATER QUALITY INDICATORS

protocols that evaluate seagrass condition based on landscape-scale dynamics. We recommend a hierarchical strategy for seagrass monitoring in order to establish the quantitative relationships between physical and biotic parameters that ultimately control seagrass condition, distribution, and persistence. The monitoring protocols are based on conceptual models that link: (1) light and nutrient availability to seagrass condition indicators and landscape level dynamics, including patchiness and depth limit distributions, and (2) physico-mechanical stressors, including hydrodynamic processes and human activities, to landscape feature indicators of seagrass bed degradation. The three-tiered approach follows a broad template adopted by several federal and state agencies across the country, but which is uniquely designed for Texas. This plan accommodates the immense hydrographic diversity in the State’s estuarine systems and its associated seagrass habitats, recent advances in seagrass monitoring techniques, and current economic constraints associated with long-term studies. Based on this approach, we describe a multiscale monitoring protocol that, when implemented, integrate plant condition indicators with landscape feature indicators to detect and interpret seagrass bed disturbances. The program includes