Relationship between sagebrush species and structural characteristics and Landsat Thematic Mapper data

Methods: Field data on sagebrush species and structural characteristics collected in 2005 were regressed against spectral values and transformed indices derived from Landsat TM data. Step-wise regression methods were used to build (1) a combinedmodel that ignored species and physical differences in sagebrush, and (2) four different models that took those differences in account. Parsimonious models were selected with significant independent variables that accounted for the largest amount of the ground-measured variation in cover.