ABSTRACT
CONTENTS Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 229
Charlotte Harbor, Florida ............................................................................................................. 230 Methods.................................................................................................................................................. 233
Historical Seagrass Coverage Estimates...................................................................................... 233 Current Seagrass Mapping Efforts............................................................................................... 233 Transects ....................................................................................................................................... 234
Results .................................................................................................................................................... 235 Seagrass Coverage........................................................................................................................ 235 Deep Edge of Seagrass Beds ....................................................................................................... 237
Discussion .............................................................................................................................................. 240 Conclusions ............................................................................................................................................ 241 Acknowledgments.................................................................................................................................. 242 References .............................................................................................................................................. 243
Concern about the condition of natural resources faced with threats from human impacts have led to efforts to monitor and assess the effects of these impacts and the efficacy of the management regimes that attempt to mitigate them. Increasingly, the use of indicators that reflect biological, chemical, or physical attributes of the “health” of an ecosystem has been encouraged, and since the 1993 U.S. Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA), government agencies have been required to develop performance reports that measure management success using indicators and goals (U.S. EPA, 2000). The U.S. EPA has developed 15 evaluation guidelines for developing environmental indicators that includes, among others, the following:
• Relevance to the assessment — The proposed indicator should be responsive to an identified question and provide information useful for management decisions.
