Journal article
A robust technique for mapping vegetation condition across a major river system
SC Cunningham, R Mac Nally, J Read, PJ Baker, M White, JR Thomson, P Griffioen
Ecosystems | SPRINGER | Published : 2009
Abstract
Ecologists need to develop tools that allow characterization of vegetation condition over scales that are pertinent to species' persistence and appropriate for management actions. Our study shows that stand condition can be mapped accurately over the floodplain of a major river system (ca 100,000 ha of forest over 1600 km of river)-the Murray River in southeastern Australia. It demonstrates the value of using quantitative ground surveys in conjunction with remotely sensed data to model vegetation condition over very large spatial domains. A comparison of four modelling methods found that stand condition was best modelled using the multivariate adaptive regression spline (MARS) method (R 2 = ..
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Awarded by Department of Sustainability and Environment
Funding Acknowledgements
This research was funded by an ARC linkage Grant (LP0560518, which was partially funded by the Victorian Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) and four Catchment Management Authorities (Mallee CMA, North Central CMA, Goulburn-Broken CMA, and North East CMA)). We thank Rachael Nolan for assistance with fieldwork. Environmental data layers were supplied by the DSE's Corporate Geospatial Data Library and the Australian Greenhouse Office (Landsat7 data). This is publication No. 146 from the Australian Centre for Biodiversity: Analysis, Policy and Management.