Predicting bird abundance in tidal marshes

Stralberg, D., M. Herzog, N. Nur, K. Tuxen, S. Siegel and M. Kelly. 2010. Predicting avian abundance within and across tidal marshes using fine-scale vegetation and geomorphic metrics. Wetlands 30: 475-487

Predicted mean abundance for common yellowthroat at Browns Is. and Sherman LakeWe used a blend of fine-scale remote sensing products and field-based survey data via spatial predictive models to aid in monitoring restoring tidal marshes for bird habitat. We developed a suite of 1-m pixel-level spatial metrics describing patterns in marsh vegetation and geomorphology for six sites across a large salinity gradient, and used these to predict avian abundance. Pdf Download. Journal link.

Keywords: Aerial imagery . Birds . Remote sensing . Spatial models . Wetland restoration