Conservation Assessment and Mapping Products for GPLCC Priority Fish Taxa
Dates
Start Date
2013-10-01
Date Received
2014-12-31
End Date
2014-12-31
Summary
Strategic conservation planning for broad, multi-species landscapes benefits from a data-driven approach that emphasizes persistence of all priority species’ populations and utilized landscapes, while simultaneously accounting for human uses. We propose to initiate a strategic conservation area assessment for the GPLCC. We will focus on Great Plains fishes for this initial project, though additional priority taxa can later be easily incorporated into this proposed framework. We will start with compilation and/or creation of spatial habitat utilization information (including construction of range-wide species distribution models) for GPLCC priority fishes. We will then utilize the open source software Zonation to perform a spatial prioritization [...]
Summary
Strategic conservation planning for broad, multi-species landscapes benefits from a data-driven approach that emphasizes persistence of all priority species’ populations and utilized landscapes, while simultaneously accounting for human uses. We propose to initiate a strategic conservation area assessment for the GPLCC. We will focus on Great Plains fishes for this initial project, though additional priority taxa can later be easily incorporated into this proposed framework. We will start with compilation and/or creation of spatial habitat utilization information (including construction of range-wide species distribution models) for GPLCC priority fishes. We will then utilize the open source software Zonation to perform a spatial prioritization analysis that explicitly incorporates i.) upstream-downstream connectivity, ii.) various landscape cost and risk parameters that account for past habitat loss or current degradation (e.g., components of National Fish Habitat Assessment), and iii.) river segments containing contemporary genetically-diverse source populations of priority taxa identified through Gido and Perkin’s ongoing work on Great Plains fishes. This will allow for prioritization of watersheds based on both priority fish diversity and persistence and areas with other high conservation values. Finally, we will use Zonation’s post-processing functions to systematically identify distinct, high-priority landscape management units based on distance and compositional similarity of prioritized areas. Implementation of a broad-scale multi-species approach such as this complements traditional reactive management and restoration by encouraging cooperation and coordination among stakeholders and partners, increasing efficiency of future monitoring and management efforts. Futher, this assessment will complement any previous assessments by providing an alternate perspective of conservation area design.
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Purpose
For aquatic conservation in the United States, the Native Fish Conservation Area (NFCA) approach to conservation assessment has recently been introduced as an approach that complements traditional reactive management and is intended to provide: i.) maintenance of processes that create habitat complexity, ii.) protection of all life stages and long-term persistence of priority species, and iii.) a framework for sustainable management over time (Dauwalter et al. 2011; Williams et al. 2011). This approach identifies networks of watersheds large enough to manage for both population persistence and compatible human development, and designating them as NFCAs to facilitate coordination and communication among managers, scientists, and various stakeholders.
Here we present a workflow and sequence of assessments aimed at providing managers a spatial perspective for allocation of conservation action towards the persistence of native freshwater fishes of the Great Plains, USA. We utilized a NFCA assessment approach, combining species distribution models of 28 priority fishes (Table 1) into a spatial prioritization framework, and conducted a series of assessment analyses meant to produce ecologically-based models of spatial conservation value among streams. The set of resulting assessments are designed to capture ecological characteristics of priority fishes while accounting for individual species’ conservation status rankings, connectivity requirements, and effects of fragmentation and metapopulation size, fish habitat condition, and perspectives on the differences between global versus jurisdictional spatial management priorities. Additionally, we performed an analysis on an assessment prioritization that categorized streams containing highly prioritized segments according to distance and compositional similarity of taxa. This product, which identifies what we are calling ‘species management units’, is essentially a stream classification map for fishes, analogous to vegetation ecoregion maps. It provides a suggested delineation of NFCAs for the study region. Finally, we provide an example of integration of this ‘species management unit’ product into a suggested three-tier spatial-framework for conservation management, identifying i.) catchment management zone, ii.) freshwater focal areas, and iii.) critical management zones (Abell et al. 2007).
Project Extension
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