Theses and Dissertations from UMD

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New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM

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Author: search.filters.author.Elmore, Annette HallSubject: search.filters.subject.Remote Sensing

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    Remote sensing of tidal freshwater marsh elevation, channels, and vegetation structure
    (2008-03-19) Elmore, Annette Hall; Engelhardt, Katharina; Biology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    I mapped three elevation classes in a Mid-Atlantic tidal freshwater marsh using QuickBird multi-spectral imagery and field measurements of elevation and channel networks. The elevation map reveals heterogeneous surfaces at a 2.4 m pixel scale. Field collected vegetation cover data differed among the three elevation classes. Species richness and the number of positive associations among species were higher in the mid- and high-marsh than the low marsh. The number of negative associations among species increased with rising elevation. Random forest classification of elevation class using species cover vectors selected only Impatiens capensis and Nuphar luteum and had an out of box predictive error of 26%. My research shows that the vegetation of freshwater tidal marshes is diverse with ill-defined boundaries between distinct communities. Yet vegetation shifts beyond the traditional low and high marsh communities could be detected, which should provide a useful tool for restoration and management.