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Detection And Classification Of Eurasian Watermilfoil With Multispectral Drone-Enabled Sensing, Colin Brooks

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Littoral zones support growth of submerged aquatic vegetation, creating productive areas that provide food and habitat for fish, amphibians, macroinvertebrates, and other parts of the food web. Understanding macrophyte dynamics requires the identification of submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) taxa, which can be possible if taxa of interest are spectrally distinct with data collected at appropriate scales. Eurasian watermilfoil, Myriophyllum spicatum or EWM, is a non-native SAV species that forms thick, often monotypic beds that reduce benthic species richness, restrict recreation, reduce property values, clog water intakes, and lower dissolved oxygen concentrations. Remote sensing of SAV species has to address the …