title: Does coverage matter at mesoscale within a Posidonia oceanica seagrass meadow?
abstract: Despite the fact that coverage is one of the most widely used descriptors for seagrass meadows, the spatial structure of coverage at mesoscale has not often been taken into account. The present work investigates the structure of P. oceanica coverage at mesoscale and its possible relationship with several factors (depth, type of substrate, relative level within the meadow, type of shoot density and level of anthropic pressure). Five classes of coverage structure are delineated within P. oceanica meadows and statistical analysis of the data did not provide evidence of a link with the factors taken into consideration. This result could be explained by the prevailing role of endogenic processes in the structuring of the P. oceanica meadow.
authors.affiliation: Centre d'Océanologie de Marseille, Campus de Luminy, case 901, 13288 Marseille cedex 9, France. leriche@com.univ-mrs.fr
authors.forename: Agathe
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Leriche
authors.forename: Charles-François
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Boudouresque
authors.forename: Vincent
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gravez
authors.forename: Nicolas
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Mayot
mesh_terms: D035961:Alismatales / Q000254:growth & development*; D016002:Discriminant Analysis; D017753:Ecosystem; D008522:Mediterranean Sea; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000254:growth & development