Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Development of a Multimetric Index for Integrated Assessment of Salt Marsh Ecosystem Condition

June 22, 2017
Data Release for journal publication describing development of a multimetric index for assessing salt marsh condition in northeastern National Parks. This is the first application of an empirical, metric-selection algorithm to metrics from multiple trophic groups (vegetation and nekton). While MMIs derived from nekton or vegetation metrics alone were strongly correlated with human disturbance (r-values from -0.80 to -0.93), an MMI derived from both vegetation and nekton metrics yielded an exceptionally strong correlation with disturbance (r = -0.96). The metric-assembly algorithm yielded parsimonious MMIs that exhibit the greatest possible correlations with disturbance in a way that is objective, efficient, and reproducible.
Publication Year 2017
Title Development of a Multimetric Index for Integrated Assessment of Salt Marsh Ecosystem Condition
DOI 10.5066/F7ZP449D
Authors Hilary A Neckles, Jessica L. Nagel, Glenn R Guntenspergen, Erika Nicosia Rocks, Donald R Schoolmaster, James B Grace, Dennis Skidds, Sara Stevens
Product Type Data Release
Record Source USGS Asset Identifier Service (AIS)
USGS Organization Eastern Ecological Science Center at the Leetown Research Laboratory
Rights This work is marked with CC0 1.0 Universal
Was this page helpful?