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<p>Black mangrove (<i>Avicennia germinans</i>) is expanding across northern Gulf of Mexico salt marshes, but whether this foundation species shift is associated with systematic differences in marsh configuration at management-relevant scales remains uncertain. We used unoccupied aerial system (UAS) multispectral imagery and object-based image analysis to produce high-resolution habitat maps across 14 flight polygons in the Port Fourchon salt marsh complex, Louisiana, USA. We quantified percent cover of black mangrove, smooth cordgrass marsh, water, spill bank, and other cover, and tested whether mangrove-marsh dominance covaried with land: water ratio, edge density, contagion, effective mesh size, mesh proportion, and patch density after accounting for open-water fraction and mapped extent. Mangrove and smooth cordgrass marsh cover varied widely among flights, from 4.5 to 52.1% and 4.7–46.9%, respectively, and open water comprised 39.6–73.3% of each flight polygon. Mangrove dominance had consistently small effects on configuration metrics, whereas open-water fraction and flight extent explained the strongest variation in several metrics. These data provide a fine-scale baseline for a rapidly changing marsh and show that mangroves are now distributed across a broad range of local land-water configurations rather than being restricted to one fragmentation state.</p>

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High-Resolution Unoccupied Aerial System Baseline Mapping of Mangrove Expansion in a Fragmented Louisiana, USA Salt Marsh

  • 期刊论文

  • 出版模式：

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  • 发表日期：

    2026年7月23日

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  • Alexander Thomas,
  • Herbert Leavitt,
  • James A. Nelson

摘要

Black mangrove (Avicennia germinans) is expanding across northern Gulf of Mexico salt marshes, but whether this foundation species shift is associated with systematic differences in marsh configuration at management-relevant scales remains uncertain. We used unoccupied aerial system (UAS) multispectral imagery and object-based image analysis to produce high-resolution habitat maps across 14 flight polygons in the Port Fourchon salt marsh complex, Louisiana, USA. We quantified percent cover of black mangrove, smooth cordgrass marsh, water, spill bank, and other cover, and tested whether mangrove-marsh dominance covaried with land: water ratio, edge density, contagion, effective mesh size, mesh proportion, and patch density after accounting for open-water fraction and mapped extent. Mangrove and smooth cordgrass marsh cover varied widely among flights, from 4.5 to 52.1% and 4.7–46.9%, respectively, and open water comprised 39.6–73.3% of each flight polygon. Mangrove dominance had consistently small effects on configuration metrics, whereas open-water fraction and flight extent explained the strongest variation in several metrics. These data provide a fine-scale baseline for a rapidly changing marsh and show that mangroves are now distributed across a broad range of local land-water configurations rather than being restricted to one fragmentation state.