Feasibility to detect rapid change and disappearance of seagrass: Lessons from nearly 80 years of vegetation change in the Ako, Seto Inland Sea, Japan
This study analyses the Ako tidal flat in the Seto Inland Sea, Japan, where nearly all Zostera marina disappeared within a single year in 2025. Using aerial photographs from the 1940s onward, high-resolution satellite imagery, GRUS images (2.5-5 m), and monthly Sentinel-2 composites (10 m), we reconstructed approximately 80 years of seagrass distribution. YOLO-based segmentation using deep learning achieved high accuracy (overall accuracy >= 0.9) across these datasets; although species could not be discriminated, the models captured the major temporal dynamics in vegetation area. The long-term mean seagrass area was 6.8 ha, but values fluctuated widely, from 3.5 ha in 1974 to 41.3 ha in 1...
| Authors | Takehisa Yamakita, Yoji Igarashi, Akira Eto et al. |
|---|---|
| Primary category | q-bio.PE |
| Published | 6 June 2026 |
| Last updated at source | 6 June 2026 |
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