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Developing a National Vegetation Multimetric Metric Index of Wetland Condition for the Conterminous United States
Citation:
Magee, T., K. Blocksom, AND M. Fennessy. Developing a National Vegetation Multimetric Metric Index of Wetland Condition for the Conterminous United States. The 2015 Annual Ecological Society of America Meeting, Baltimore, MD, August 09 - 14, 2015.
Impact/Purpose:
This abstract is for a talk or poster to be presented at the 2015 Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Baltimore, Maryland in August. The abstract documents the development of, and results from, a national scale Vegetation Multimetric Index of wetland condition, which is the primary index for assessing ecological condition for the USEPA 2011 National Wetland Condition Assessment. Presenting these results at the ESA meeting provides a conduit to sharing important EPA research with ecological scientists and managers, highlighting the utility of this work in informing management decisions and basic research, and receiving technical feedback from a diverse scientific and applied audience.
Description:
This product is an abstract for the 2015 Ecological Society Meeting in Baltimore, Maryland in August. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), with states, tribes, and other partners, conducted the first-ever National Wetland Condition Assessment (NWCA) in 2011, using a survey design allowing extrapolation of results to national and regional scales. As part of the NWCA, we developed a Vegetation Multimetric Index (VMMI) reflecting ecological condition or the Nation's wetlands. We report on the process for developing the VMMI and on its use for making estimates of the extent of wetland area across the nation that is in good, fair, and poor ecological condition.