Modeling Habitat Connectivity to Support State Wildlife Action Plans in the Mid-South
Summary
This set of spatial data products refines and improves the Conservation Blueprint 1.0 product developed by the Gulf Coastal Plains and Ozarks Landscape Conservation Cooperative. The principal improvement is the elimination of spatially contradictory information about the distribution of habitat for targeted wildlife species across the landscape. Each of the ecological assessments for terrestrial broadly defined habitats was reproduced using a single integrated map based on ecological systems and measurable landscape attributes. For each terrestrial broadly defined habitat, an independent assessment was produced using two large landscape targets, two measures of habitat condition, and two measures of potential to generate a condition [...]
Summary
This set of spatial data products refines and improves the Conservation Blueprint 1.0 product developed by the Gulf Coastal Plains and Ozarks Landscape Conservation Cooperative. The principal improvement is the elimination of spatially contradictory information about the distribution of habitat for targeted wildlife species across the landscape. Each of the ecological assessments for terrestrial broadly defined habitats was reproduced using a single integrated map based on ecological systems and measurable landscape attributes. For each terrestrial broadly defined habitat, an independent assessment was produced using two large landscape targets, two measures of habitat condition, and two measures of potential to generate a condition index score, standardized to range from 0 – 14 across all habitat types. Each individual habitat assessment data layer includes a bar code descriptor field that explains which measures contributed to the index for each cell in the grid. These individual condition index layers were combined into a unified assessment of all habitat types in a single map. A simple analysis of potential corridors linking core areas of highest quality habitat was produced by identifying core areas, splitting core areas into classes based on size, creating cost distance surface grids for each class, and linking each individual patch in each class to its least cost “nearest” neighbor from each of the other three classes. The Condition Index scores have been incorporated into a 2019 project developing draft Conservation Opportunity Areas for the state of Arkansas. Products from this project have potential to be a key input into the next iteration of the Southeastern Conservation Adaptation Strategy (SECAS) regional assessment of lands and waters having high conservation value.
AWARD ID: F17AC01036
START DATE: 1/2/2018
END DATE: 1/31/2019
SOURCE: Region 4 Science Applications
AMOUNT: $70,000
PI: Dr. Toby Gray
CONTACT INFO:Geosystems Research Institute, Mississippi State University; Office: 662 325-7642; toby@gri.msstate.edu
LEAD ORG: Mississippi State University
FWS PO: D. Todd Jones-Farrand
