Table 3. Parameter estimates from selected best Bayesian hierarchical models for current occupancy dynamics, with covariates influencing occupancy (zero not included in credible intervals) in bold.

Parameter	Description	Mean	Standard deviation	Credible Interval (2.5pc)	Credible Interval (97.5pc)
ψ [1]	Overall occupancy for year 1	0.179	0.022	0.135	0.22
ψ [2]	Overall occupancy for year 2	0.089	0.056	0.012	0.22
ψ [3]	Overall occupancy for year 3	0.091	0.057	0.014	0.23
φ [1]	Persistence probability from year 1 to year 2	0.276	0.225	0.009	0.834
φ [2]	Persistence probability from year 2 to year 3	0.599	0.273	0.054	0.983
γ [1]	Colonization probability from year 1 to year 2	0.049	0.046	0.0013	0.171
γ [2]	Colonization probability from year 2 to year 3	0.041	0.041	0.001	0.147
p [1,1]	Detection probability for observer 1 for year 1	0.64	0.156	0.318	0.905
p [1], [2]	Detection probability for observer 1 for year 2	0.63	0.192	0.228	0.94
p [1], [3]	Detection probability for observer 1 for year 3	0.41	0.159	0.125	0.731
p [2], [1]	Detection probability for observer 2 for year 1	0.33	0.14	0.091	0.627
p [2,2]	Detection probability for observer 2 for year 2	0.53	0.183	0.177	0.863
p [2], [3]	Detection probability for observer 2 for year 3	0.77	0.139	0.448	0.968
E [1,1]	False positive detection probability for observer 1 for year 1	0.03	0.0177	0.0055	0.0711
E [1], [2]	False positive detection probability for observer 1 for year 2	0.075	0.0173	0.036	0.0989
E [1], [3]	False positive detection probability for observer 1 for year 3	0.04	0.023	0.0074	0.0916
E [2], [1]	False-positive detection probability for observer 2 for year 1	0.023	0.0165	0.0055	0.0677
E [2,2]	False-positive detection probability for observer 2 for year 2	0.024	0.017	0.0055	0.0687
E [2], [3]	False-positive detection probability for observer 2 for year 3	0.021	0.015	0.0054	0.0611
q1 [2]	Effect of partially exposed meadow relative to sheltered meadow	5.12	5.59	–2.656	19.22
q1 [3]	Effect of exposed meadow relative to sheltered meadow	–28.98	18.63	–73.61	–2.99
q2 [2]	Effect of Sc2 relative to Sc1	1.55	3.60	–4.73	9.72
q2 [3]	Effect of Sc3 relative to Sc1	7.79	13.74	–15.19	39.08
q2 [4]	Effect of Sc4 relative to Sc1	–21.97	12	–49.67	–4.52
q3 [2]	Effect of meadows arrived recently	–30	20.34	–76.09	1.98
q3 [3]	Effect of persistent meadows	41.23	17.11	12.9	78.22
q3 [4]	Effect of dynamic meadows	13.25	7.41	2.76	30.75
τ	Precision term for group random effects	0.001	0.003	0.00003	0.0070

Note: q1 [1], q2 [1], q3 [1] were assigned ‘zero’ to mark a clear reference point for respective covariates. Sc refers to categorical variable ‘seagrass species composition’ (see methods).