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Fine-Scale Mapping of Coastal Plant Communities in the Northeastern USA

  • Applied Wetland Science
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Abstract

Salt marshes of the northeastern United States are dynamic landscapes where the tidal flooding regime creates patterns of plant zonation based on differences in elevation, salinity, and local hydrology. These patterns of zonation can change quickly due to both natural and anthropogenic stressors, making tidal marshes vulnerable to degradation and loss. We compared several remote sensing techniques to develop a tool that accurately maps high- and low-marsh zonation to use in management and conservation planning for this ecosystem in the northeast USA. We found that random forests (RF) outperformed other classifier tools when applied to the most recent National Agricultural Imagery Program (NAIP) imagery, NAIP derivatives, and elevation data between coastal Maine and Virginia, USA. We then used RF methods to classify plant zonation within a 500-m buffer around coastal marsh delineated in the National Wetland Inventory. We found mean classification accuracies of 94% for high marsh, 76% for low marsh zones, and 90% overall map accuracy. The detailed output is a 3-m resolution continuous map of tidal marsh vegetation communities and cover classes that can be used in habitat modeling of marsh-obligate species or to monitor changes in marsh plant communities over time.

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Acknowledgements

This work was made possible through financial support from the North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Northeast Region Science Applications (#24), and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch Project Number ME0-21710 through the Maine Agricultural & Forest Experiment Station. This is Maine State Agricultural and Forest Experimentation Station Publication # 3590. We would like to thank all Saltmarsh Habitat and Avian Research Program (SHARP) field technicians who collected field training data for this effort, and all participating landowners that allowed access to their properties for surveying. We also thank Janet Leese for countless hours spent digitizing training polygons in the lab. Comments from Erin and Kasey Legaard, D. Rosco, N. Hanson, and the Olsen Lab substantially improved the methods described here.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Biology and Ecology, The University of Maine, Orono, ME, 04469, USA

    Maureen D. Correll, Wouter Hantson, Brittany B. Cline & Brian J. Olsen

  2. Bird Conservancy of the Rockies, Fort Collins, CO, 80521, USA

    Maureen D. Correll

  3. Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, Bangor, ME, 04401, USA

    Thomas P. Hodgman

  4. Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology, The University of Delaware, Newark, DE, 19716, USA

    Brittany B. Cline, W. Gregory Shriver & Elizabeth L. Tymkiw

  5. Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Center for Conservation and Biodiversity, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, 06269, USA

    Chris S. Elphick

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  1. Maureen D. Correll
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Correspondence to Maureen D. Correll.

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Correll, M.D., Hantson, W., Hodgman, T.P. et al. Fine-Scale Mapping of Coastal Plant Communities in the Northeastern USA. Wetlands 39, 17–28 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-018-1028-3

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