This DATSETNAMEreadme.txt file was generated on 20240310 by Elisabeth Powell ------------------- GENERAL INFORMATION ------------------- 1. Title of Dataset: Characterizing Low-Lying Coastal Upland Forests to Predict Future Landward Marsh Expansion 2. Author Information: Principal Investigator Contact Information: Name:Elisabeth Powell Institution: University of Maryland Address: 2181 LeFrak Hall, College Park, MD 20740 Email: epowell1@terpmail.umd.edu Associate or Co-investigator Contact Information: Name:Ralph Dubayah Institution:University of Maryland Address:2181 LeFrak Hall, College Park, MD 20740 Email:dubayah@umd.edu 3. Date of data collection (single date, range, approximate date): July-September 2022 4. Geographic location of data collection (where was data collected?): The data was collected in three sites in Delaware:Blackbird Creek National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR)(39°23’17.60” N, 75°37’43.66” W), St. Jones NERR (39°05’18.91” N, 75°26’20.14” W), and Milford Neck Wildlife Refuge (38°58’05.45” N 75° 26’ 20.15” W). 5. Information about funding sources that supported the collection of the data: This study was supported by the Margaret A. Davidson Graduate Fellowship funded by NOAA -------------------------- SHARING/ACCESS INFORMATION -------------------------- 1. Licenses/restrictions placed on the data: Please cite Characterizing Low-Lying Coastal Upland Forests to Predict Future Landward Marsh Expansion by Powell et al., (2024) when using the data. 2. Links to publications that cite or use the data:LINK HERE 3. Links to other publicly accessible locations of the data: 4. Links/relationships to ancillary data sets: 5. Was data derived from another source? If yes, list source(s): 6. Recommended citation for the data: --------------------- DATA & FILE OVERVIEW --------------------- 1. File List: A. Filename:PAVD_metrics_DRUM.csv Short description: These data are results from 74 Terrestrial laser scanning posititons at the three sites in Delaware. PAVD profiles illustrate the vertical stratification of the forest, which is used to examine the organization of plant material from the ground to canopy (Calders et al. 2014). The calculation of gap probability and vertical plant profiles was executed in Python using the open source Pylidar-tls-canopy library (https://github.com/armstonj/pylidar-tls-canopy) (Armston 2023). 2. Relationship between files:N/A 3. Additional related data collected that was not included in the current data package: The ground elevation was extracted from a 1-meter 2014 digital elevation model (DEM) obtained from the Delaware USGS. This DEM had been corrected to account for the vertical elevation bias commonly caused by low-lying vegetation. The correction used a coastal marsh correction factor with a set of high accuracy elevation measurements (Warner et al. 2022). 4. Are there multiple versions of the dataset? No -------------------------- METHODOLOGICAL INFORMATION -------------------------- 1. Description of methods used for collection/generation of data: Please see the manuscript Powell et al. (2024) for data collection and processing. Forest structural metrics followed methods from: Calders, K., J. Armston, G. Newnham, M. Herold, and N. Goodwin. 2014. Implications of sensor configuration and topography on vertical plant profiles derived from terrestrial LiDAR. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 194:104–117. Calders, K., G. Newnham, A. Burt, S. Murphy, P. Raumonen, M. Herold, D. Culvenor, V. Avitabile, M. Disney, J. Armston, and M. Kaasalainen. 2015. Nondestructive estimates of above‐ground biomass using terrestrial laser scanning. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 6:198–208. ----------------------------------------- DATA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION FOR: [FILENAME] ----------------------------------------- 1. Number of variables:18 2. Number of cases/rows: 75 3. Variable List A. Name: Site Site Name (BB - Blackbird Creek, SJ - St. Jones, MF - Milford Neck) B. Name: transect Numbered transect at each site C. Name: Plot Plot Number D. Name: Distance Distance from forest edge E. Name:PAVD_0_5m Aggregated Plant Area Volume Density (PAVD) within 0 to 5 meters vertical height bin F.Name:PAVD_5_10m Agregated PAVD within 5 to 10 meters vertical height bin G.Name:PAVD_10_15m Agregated PAVD within 5 to 10 meters vertical height bin H.Name:PAVD_15_20m Agregated PAVD within 15 to 20 meters vertical height bin I.Name:PAVD_20_25m Agregated PAVD within 20 to 25 meters vertical height bin J.Name:PAVD_25_30m Agregated PAVD within 25 to 30 meters vertical height bin K.Name:PAVD_30_35m Agregated PAVD within 30 to 35 meters vertical height bin L.Name:PAVD_35_40m Agregated PAVD within 35 to 40 meters vertical height bin M.Name:Elevation.x Elevation extracted with USGS 1-meter DEM, North American Vertical Datum 1988 (NAVD88) N.Name:hingePAI total Plant Area Index derived from Pylidar TLS-Canopy Armston (2023) O.Name:Slope Slope calculated using 1-meter DEM P.Name:pgap_mean Average percentage of gap fraction across the 5-70° field of view angle range Q.Name:FHD Foliage Height Diversity (please see equation in manuscript) R.Name:Canopy top height canopy top height was derived based on the 98% PAVD-percentile 4. Missing data codes:N/A