MONITORING SPATIAL CHANGE IN SEAGRASS HABITAT WITH AERIAL-PHOTOGRAPHY

Photointerpretive techniques were applied to map the spatial change of seagrass habitat between 1985 and 1988 in Back Sound and southern Cor e Sound, North Carolina. The method constrains photography to optimize visualization of photic submerged land. It accentuates surface level training and verification of seagrass habitat observed in photographs to minimize classification errors due to variability of photographic s ignatures of benthic features. The method is unique in its registratio n of habitat data to concurrent shoreline manuscript base maps from th e National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, National Ocean Serv ice. Seagrass habitat is abundant in the study area - approximately 7, 000 hectares or 35 percent of the subtidal land -with a high degree of overlap in 1985 and 1988. The overall net change was a 6 percent decr ease in seagrass habitat. Locations of habitat loss from 1985 to 1988 were confirmed by site visit, and two of these could be attributed to specific anthropogenic activities.