Salt marsh harvest mice habitat selection

Read the scientific article here

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Salt marsh harvest mice, or "salties" as they're affectionately called, are incredibly resilient creatures - adapted to survive exclusively in the coastal marshes of northern California. However, human activity, climate change, and increasing wetland manipulation is threatening the habitat these mice are specialized to live in. As a federally-listed endangered species, protecting the salt marsh harvest mouse is a priority for conservationists and managers in the region.

I undertook an advanced analysis of the habitat selection of "salties", with a focus on the role of vegetation structure. Previous field studies suggested that salt marsh harvest mice rely on both low-lying plants (such as pickleweed) for food, and taller vegetation (such as cattails) to avoid predators and for refuge from high tides. With recent advancements in remote sensing, especially Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR), examining vegetation structure at a fine scale has never been easier. My work combined LiDAR imagery from Suisun Marsh with mark-recapture data collected on "salties" to identify characteristics of the vegetation that may promote mice presence - which in turn will help managers better protect the species. 

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