Geophysical Settings 1000 A Hexagons, Northern Appalachians/Acadians
Resilience Hexagons with Key Fields
Dates
Acquisition
2012
Summary
This dataset represents The Nature Conservancy's Terrestrial Resilience symbolized by Geophysical Settings (90m Resilience is also included in the download of this dataset). Resilience concerns the ability of a living system to adjust to climate change, to moderate potential damages, to take advantage of opportunities, or to cope with consequences; in short, its capacity to adapt. In this project we aim to identify the most resilient examples of key geophysical settings (e.g. sand plains, granite mountains, limestone valleys, etc.) to provide conservationists with a nuanced picture of the places where conservation is most likely to succeed over centuries. The project had three parts: 1) identifying and mapping the geophysical settings, [...]
Summary
This dataset represents The Nature Conservancy's Terrestrial Resilience symbolized by Geophysical Settings (90m Resilience is also included in the download of this dataset). Resilience concerns the ability of a living system to adjust to climate change, to moderate potential damages, to take advantage of opportunities, or to cope with consequences; in short, its capacity to adapt. In this project we aim to identify the most resilient examples of key geophysical settings (e.g. sand plains, granite mountains, limestone valleys, etc.) to provide conservationists with a nuanced picture of the places where conservation is most likely to succeed over centuries. The project had three parts: 1) identifying and mapping the geophysical settings, 2) developing a quantitative estimate of resilience for each setting based on landscape complexity and permeability, and 3) identifying key linkages that may be important in facilitating climate-induced regional movements. The final products include the identification of sites with high or low estimated resilience and overlays of these sites with the TNC portfolio of important biodiversity sites. The products were presented in an ecoregional context, highlighting sites with the highest estimated resilience for each setting within each ecoregion.
1) Resilience score: This is a numeric resilience score given in standard normal units. It was created from the landscape complexity and local connectedness scores normalized to each setting and ecoregion.
2) Resilience category: This is a categorical version of the resilience score where each site is assigned to one of five categories: way below average (-2SD), below average (-1SD), average, above average (+1SD), and way above average (+2SD).
3) Setting:. This attribute gives the geophysical setting of the site as a combination of its geology class and elevation zone, for example “L:GRAN = low elevation granite.” Descriptions of each setting are provided in the full report. Most sites are a single geology-elevation combination but some are more complicated. For those, the two most abundant settings are given.
4) Landscape Complexity: This attribute provides the site’s score for landscape complexity relative to other sites of the same setting. Complexity is a measure of the landform diversity and elevation range of the hexagon, and it estimates the number of micro-climates available for species. The complexity score is given as a category based on its standard normalized score, as described above.
5) Local Connectedness: This attribute tells how connected the site is to its surrounding landscape. High connectedness ensures that species and processes can move and adjust to changes in the climate. The connectedness score is given as a category based on its standard normalized score, as described above.
6) Ecoregion: This attribute tells which ecoregion the site occurs in. Definitions and maps of The Nature Conservancy ecoregions are provided in the full report. The study covers six complete ecoregions. Some hexagons were evaluated within only part of an ecoregions (these are indicated by an asterisk in the dataset). For the partial ecoregions the results may be deceptive because we have not yet evaluated them relative to the complete ecoregion.
7) State: This attribute tells which US state or Canadian province the hexagon occurs in.
This file contains the 1000 acre hexagons used as the primary unit of analysis for the resilience analysis and the attribute table contains the key attributes for basic interpertation of the results. The key fields include state, ecoregion, geophysical setting, final resilience score stratified by setting and ecoregion, final resilience score stratified by setting and ecoregion classified into categories, landscape complexity category, and local connectedness category. For more detailed information please see: https://www.conservationgateway.org/ConservationByGeography/NorthAmerica/UnitedStates/edc/reportsdata/terrestrial/resilience/Pages/default.aspx
Rights
The Nature Conservancy reserves all rights in data provided. All data are provided as is. This is not a survey quality dataset. The Nature Conservancy makes no warranty as to the currency, completeness, accuracy or utility of any specific data. This disclaimer applies both to individual use of the data and aggregate use with other data. This data set must be cited on all electronic and hard copy products using the language of the Data Set Credit. The Nature Conservancy shall not be held liable for improper or incorrect use of the data described and/or contained herein. Any sale, distribution, loan, or offering for use of these digital data, in whole or in part, is prohibited without the approval of the Nature Conservancy. The use of these data to produce other GIS products and services with the intent to sell for a profit is prohibited without the written consent of the Nature Conservancy. All parties receiving these data must be informed of these restrictions. The Nature Conservancy shall be acknowledged as data contributors to any reports or other products derived from these data.