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Samantha Dietz
Assistant Scientist

Samantha Dietz

Assistant Scientist

Ms. Samantha Dietz has a background in ecological research and conservation. Her experience includes fieldwork, and using data to understand ecological patterns and support conservation programs.


Coastal Resilience

Salt Marsh Restoration, Long Island, New York Assisted with the planning and implementation of a 147-acre salt marsh restoration project to mitigate the effects of sea level rise, flooding, and storms on a coastal development. Designed and implemented protocols to measure environmental conditions, including avian and vegetation surveys, water levels, and coastline position. These protocols were used to conduct standardized assessments of restoration progress.
Effects of Sea Level Rise on Coastal Vegetation Communities, Various Sites, Florida Assisted with a project in which analyses were conducted to understand how sea level rise and saltwater intrusion have altered the distribution and composition of coastal forests and marshes along Florida’s west coast. Created visualizations of the data and drafted the report summarizing the project and findings.

Ecological Restoration

Inventory of At-Risk, State, and Federally Listed Plants, Various Sites, Florida Performed a comprehensive assessment of listed plant species and their habitats in the Florida Panhandle. Conducted forest inventories to collect field data on the occurrence of target species and associated habitats. Used species distribution data to broadly characterize habitat important for the conservation of these species and make recommendations for improved management.
Effects of Treatment on Three Invasive Species, Various Sites, Florida Designed and conducted a study to understand how various herbicide treatment schedules affected the control of three invasive species in southern Florida. Analyzed data to determine the minimum number of treatments and frequency required for successful control.

Statistical Modeling

Effects of Management Practices on Macbridea alba, Various Sites, Florida Modeled historical species occurrence and forest management data to understand how applied fire frequency and forest structure affects the abundance and distribution of a threatened plant species.
Assessment of Variation in Dispersal Decisions in a Cooperatively Breeding Passerine, Tallahassee, Florida Utilized a 15-year data set on a wild bird population to model how habitat and social experience affect juvenile dispersal patterns for graduate research project. Conducted fieldwork to collect additional data on the population and managed associated databases. Created visualizations of model outputs and wrote thesis detailing project methodology and findings.

Data Management

Applications of Terrestrial LiDAR Data, Various Sites, Florida Created workflows for managing and processing terrestrial light detection and ranging (LiDAR) data to understand how LiDAR can be used to improve the efficiency of ecological data collection in the field. Workflows were used to compare LiDAR and field-collected metrics to determine if LiDAR-collected data accurately measured key ecological parameters.
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