Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Investigating The Ironwood Tree (Casuarina Equisetifolia) Decline On Guam Using Applied Multinomial Modeling, Karl Anthony Schlub

LSU Master's Theses

The ironwood tree (Casuarina equisetifolia), a protector of coastlines of the sub-tropical and tropical Western Pacific, is in decline on the island of Guam where aggressive data collection and efforts to mitigate the problem are underway. For each sampled tree the level of decline was measured on an ordinal scale consisting of five categories ranging from healthy to near dead. Several predictors were also measured including tree diameter, fire damage, typhoon damage, presence or absence of termites, presence or absence of basidiocarps, and various geographical or cultural factors. The five decline response levels can be viewed as categories of a …