Date of Award

Summer 8-16-2024

Level of Access Assigned by Author

Open-Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Ecology and Environmental Sciences

Advisor

Brian Olsen

Second Committee Member

Brian McGill

Third Committee Member

Chris Elphick

Additional Committee Members

Zachary Wood

Abstract

We created a metric of ecological condition for use in the northeastern US tidal saltmarsh ecosystem. We used the metric to characterize relative condition of tidal salt marshes across management and protection status, geomorphic setting, and a large geographic extent. We followed a method previously used for freshwater marshes and forests, using an environmental gradient that was defined a priori and is easily interpreted. To define the relative condition of marshes, we characterized the environment, the bird community, and how they interact using data from 2012 – 2014. We found that sites within areas designated as conserved via the USGS GAP project, scored highest and had more tidal saltmarsh-dependent birds, important indicators of quality salt marsh. We found that, although protecting tidal salt marsh from permanent alteration can encourage relatively good environmental conditions, this has not translated into the predicted avian community assemblage that such an environment would suggest, but this varies across sub-ecoregions and geomorphic setting. Also, we found that the avian taxa vary markedly in what environmental conditions drive their average detections; this suggests that several taxa should be included as indicators of the saltmarsh environs to cover the breadth of variation in how landscape and disturbance variables influence them

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