Mozambique
Thirteen species of seagrass have been documented in Mozambique, including Thalassodendron leptocaulis, which is exclusive to rocky habitats in Mozambique and South Africa.
Seagrass meadows in Mozambique encompass an area of 439 km², and are primarily located in the intertidal zone. Key sites for the conservation of this vital ecosystem and its associated species include the Quirimbas Archipelago, Bay Fernão Veloso, the Bazaruto Archipelago, as well as the islands of Inhaca and Ponta do Ouro.
While seagrass meadows are abundant in the Bazaruto Archipelago region, this ecosystem faces significant risks from anthropogenic pressures, such as boating, netting, and trampling, as well as from extreme climate events like cyclones.
Seagrass-Watch in Mozambique
To provide an early warning of change, long-term monitoring has been established in Mozambique as part of the Seagrass-Watch, Global Seagrass Observing Network (www.seagrasswatch.org), in collaboration with Marine Mega Fauna Foundation. Establishing a network of monitoring sites in Mozambique provides valuable information on temporal trends in the health status of seagrass meadows in the region and provides a tool for decision-makers in adopting protective measures. It encourages local communities to become involved in seagrass management and protection. Working with both scientists and local stakeholders, this approach is designed to draw attention to the many local anthropogenic impacts on seagrass meadows which degrade coastal ecosystems and decrease their yield of natural resources.
Location
Inhassoro District Monitoring
Monitoring: ongoing
Principal watchers: Marine Megafauna Foundation
Location: Coastal intertidal sand banks, protected by an extensive fringing reef
Site code:
IN1: Tsondzo Bay
IN2: Mangarelane Bay
IN3: Mangarelane Bay South
Comments: All sites are in the low intertidal zone outside the boundaries of the Bazaruto Archipelago National Park (BANP), and are situated in remote, high-threat zones characterised by intense and unregulated netting activity.
- Sites appear to be showing a typical season pattern of seagrass abundance (higher in late spring-summer than winter). Sites are similar in species composition and abundance.
- CW2 has generally higher abundance and greater canopy height than CW1
- CW1 showed a dramatic increase in abundance in mid 2003, which may have been a consequence of extraction activities on the reef flat which possibly released nutrients into the water column.
- When monitoring began, the abundance of epiphytes was significantly higher at CW2 than CW1, however, now both sites have relatively low epiphyte cover (<10%).
Seagrass cover, species composition and canopy height
Macroalgae and Epiphyte cover
Location
Inhassoro District Mapping
Data collection: Marine Megafauna Foundation
Mapping methodology: Seagrass-Watch
Map planning Data Analysis and Map creation: Seagrass-Watch
Location:Â Inhassoro District
How to use map viewer
On the Contents (dark) toolbar, click 
(Legend).Â
The legend displays information about each layer that is visible at the current map scale.
Not all layers contain legend information.
In Map Viewer, on the Contents (dark) toolbar (found on the left), select 
(Layers)Â to display all the different map Layers.
The legend displays information about each layer that is visible at the current map scale. Not all layers contain legend information.
On the Contents (dark) toolbar, click (Legend). The legend displays information about each layer that is visible at the current map scale. Not all layers contain legend information.
You do not need to show all map layers in the legend. For example, if the map focuses on seagrass distribution and extent for a region/country, you may want the legend to show only spotcheck symbols and not seagrass species and other reference data included in the map.
To hide a layer in the legend, do the following:
- Open the map with the legend in which you want to hide a layer.
- On the Contents (dark) toolbar, click Layers .
- Browse to the layer you want to hide (turn off) or show (turn on).
- The layer visibility can then be turned on (Show layer
) or off (Hide layer 
) by clicking the eye symbol on the list.
Simply move your mouse over a dot on the map and click on a Dot.
This will then bring up data and images from field
Using the mouse wheel makes it easy to zoom and pan anytime you like without changing the tool you are currently using.
These shortcuts work in data view and layout view. In layout view, they apply to the page by default. You can hold down the SHIFT key and perform any shortcut to apply it to the data frame instead of the page (the active data frame in the case of rolling the mouse wheel, or the data frame you clicked in the case of clicking or dragging the mouse wheel).
| Mouse wheel action | ArcMap navigation function |
|---|---|
| Rolling wheel back and forth | Zooms in and out |
| Holding down CTRL and rolling | Zooms in and out but with finer increment; used for small adjustments |
| Clicking mouse wheel (or middle mouse button) | Centers map at location where you clicked |
| Holding down mouse wheel (or middle mouse button) and dragging | Pans |
| Holding down CTRL and clicking mouse wheel | Centers and zooms in at location you clicked |
| Holding down CTRL and dragging with the mouse wheel | Zooms in |
How the data was collected
Field validation points were spatially balanced and randomised within the Area of Interest (AOI). All data collected within the AOI was used to ensure mapping of all seagrass meadows present.
At each field validation point, teams conducted a spot-check using either Drop-Cam, in situ observation, or grab (to confirm species ID where seagrass or algae were present.)
Photoquadrats were captured during each spot-check. Photoquadrats were either geotagged or geolocated. Data collected from the photoquadrats (e.g. % cover and species) at each point were used to train and validate models for classification of satellite imagery.