## 3 Results
### Fragmentation Analysis  
Fragmentation results in Table 6 show that the IM region underwent significant fragmentation over the two decades of the study period. Since we considered only one class (mangrove) in the fragmentation analysis, the area indices, including class area (CA) and total landscape area (TLA), are the same, which is 13,612 ha and 10,705 ha for years 2000 and 2019, respectively. There was a significant loss of mangrove area (21%) during the study period; thus, the analysis of the remaining fragmentation metrics will also be focused on the influence of the area loss on each metric. Figure 3: Mangrove area of (**a**) year 2000; (**b**) year 2019; and (**c**) the unchanged, gains, and losses of mangroves between 2000 and 2019. Figure 4: Identification of areas of (**a**) gain and loss and (**b**) aquaculture over Iskandar Malaysia (IM). \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline
**Transition Type** & **ID.** & **Loss Area** \\ \hline  & & Sungal Bob Village \\ \cline{3-4}  & & 17 Jan 2008 & 10 Feb 2018 \\ \cline{3-4}  & 5 & \\ Urban & & & Pulai River–Custom Administration Building and Forest City Golf Hotel/Resort \\ \cline{3-4}  & & July 2006 & 2 Aug 2019 \\ \cline{3-4}  & 6 & \\ and & 7 & & \\ \cline{3-4}  & 7 & & \\ \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table S. Cont. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline
**Transition Type** & ID. & **Loss Area** \\ \hline  & & Sri Aman Village \\  & 11 & 6 Apr 2003 & 23 Jan 2012 \\  & and 12 & & \\  & & Kong Kong Village \\ Aquaculture & & 6 Apr 2003 & 19 July 2020 \\  & 16 & & \\ and & 17 & & \\ \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 5: Cont. \begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline
**Transition Type** & ID. & **Loss Area** \\ \hline  & **Gain area** & \\ \hline  & & Melaya Village \\ \hline  & 17 Jan 2008 & 2 Aug 2019 \\ \hline \end{tabular}   
The patch size index provides information about the Number of Patches (NP) and the Mean Patch Size (MPS). The patch size is one of the fragmentation parameters that has been studied most [17]. Increased NP from 130 to 402 and decreased MPS from 104.71 to 26.63 (reduction of \(-\)78.08 ha) between 2000 and 2019 indicates that the mangrove areas in the IM region had been broken down into smaller patches. The changes of minimum patch size (3.08 ha to 0.001 ha) and maximum patch size (6883.01 ha to 4067.96 ha) from years 2000 to 2019 showed a similar trend to the MPS values, indicating that the mangrove areas had been fragmented into smaller patches throughout the entire study area. In a previous study, [PERSON], [PERSON], [PERSON], [PERSON], [PERSON], and [PERSON] [1] reported a smaller reduction of mean patch size of \(-\)7.2 ha for Malaysia between 2000 and 2012, which infers that the fragmentation in the IM region is significantly more serious than the country's average. The higher MPS could also be due to the more rapid development in IM compared to other cities located near to mangrove forests in other parts of Malaysia. Coincidentally, the largest mangrove patch in the year 2019 (4067.96 ha) was found located in the largest mangrove patch of the year 2000 (6883.01 ha). Analysis of this large mangrove patch showed that it had fragmented into 60 smaller patches (0.001 ha to 4067.96 ha, with a mean of 94.29 ha), with a loss of 1131.63 ha over the study period. This specific patch has been selected for detailed fragmentation analysis on its effect of LAI and GPP in the later part of this manuscript. Similarly, the Edge indices (TE and ED) also increased from 2000 to 2019, primarily because of the separation of large patches into small patches. Figure 10 in the m shows the fragmentation of mangrove over a selected area within the study area. The increases in TE (from 1200.5 km to 1365 km) and ED (from 88.2 m/ha to 127.5 m/ha) demonstrate that the fragmentation is a result of man-made disturbances rather than natural effects. This can be explained by natural shaped patches normally having fewer edges than man-made urban areas and agriculture boundaries.