This project was funded to understand how, where, and why outputs from landscape connectivity models vary, and to suggest approaches to increase comparability and interoperability of models across Landscape Conservation Cooperative boundaries. We began by compiling metadata from 73 landscape connectivity modeling projects into an online, editable spreadsheet. Using spatial data from a subset of studies included in the database, we conducted an uncertainty analysis to understand how much spatial variation there was among predictions from different landscape connectivity models. Raw outputs from the original models showed relatively little overlap, averaging about 3% across all pairs of studies. However, when a common...
The purpose of the North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) is to create a continent-wide program to monitor bats at local to rangewide scales that will provide reliable data to promote effective conservation decisionmaking and the long-term viability of bat populations across the continent. This is an international, multiagency program. Four approaches will be used to gather monitoring data to assess changes in bat distributions and abundances: winter hibernaculum counts, maternity colony counts, mobile acoustic surveys along road transects, and acoustic surveys at stationary points. These monitoring approaches are described along with methods for identifying species recorded by acoustic detectors. Other chapters...
This report outlines the process that was taken to develop Performance Measures for the LCC Network, as well as the outcome, which consists of a suite of measures. We have documented the process so that you can better understand the discussions and information that went into the development of a performance measures framework. Input came from interviews with LCC Coordinators, review of LCC documents, review of relevant performance measures frameworks from natural resources and socioeconomic sectors, interviews with users and designers of relevant frameworks, and a two-day framework design “charrette” with the LCC Performance Measures Working Group. Some key features that were incorporated in the framework for the...
One of the most influential environmental laws in the US – the 1972 Clean Water Act – included the visionary objective of maintaining and restoring aquatic ecological integrity. However, the efficacy of the Act depends on how integrity is assessed. Reviewing the assessment literature for fresh waters over the past 40 years, we found evidence of methodological trends toward increased repeatability, transferability, and robustness of assessments over time. However, implementation gaps were revealed, based on the relatively weak linkages to freshwater policies, stakeholder involvement, emerging threats, and conservation opportunities. A related survey of assessment practitioners underscored the disparity between need...
This project modeled the effects of future climate change on bird distributions and their status in the lower 48 states. Its goal was to examine more than 600 species of birds and produce more than 100 predictive scenarios for each species, resulting in more than 600,000 data layers for birds. The purpose of the project was to provide information critical to the design and implementation of management and conservation strategies that could be used by all Landscape Conservation Cooperatives.
The North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) is a large-scale, long-term monitoring program designed to assess the status and trends of North American bats at local, regional, and range-wide scales. Spanning the United States, Canada, and Mexico, NABat brings together an extensive network of partners who utilize the NABat program design and monitoring protocols to collect bat population data. These data are analyzed at various spatial and temporal scales and results are used to promote effective conservation actions to ensure the long-term viability of bat populations across the continent.
A project to determine data management needs, assets, and opportunities. Using this information, create a Data Management Strategy for the Science Agency.
The rate at which new information about stream resources is being created has accelerated with the recent development of spatial stream-network models (SSNMs), the growing availability of stream databases, and ongoing advances in geospatial science and computational efficiency. To further enhance information development, the National Stream Internet (NSI) project was developed as a means of providing a consistent, flexible analytical infrastructure that can be applied with many types of stream data anywhere in the country. A key part of that infrastructure is the NSI network, a digital GIS layer which has a specific topological structure that was designed to work effectively with SSNMs. The NSI network was derived...
Fact sheet about a project funded by the LCC Network to conduct spatial uncertainty and sensitivity analyses to enhance the comparability of landscape connectivity products for large-scale landscape planning.
The cascade of uncertainty that underscores climate impact assessments of regional hydrology undermines their value for long-term water resources planning and management. This study presents a statistical framework that quantifies and propagates the uncertainties of hydrologic model response through projections of future streamflow under climate change. Different sources of hydrologic model uncertainty are accounted for using Bayesian modeling. The distribution of model residuals is formally characterized to quantify predictive skill, and Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling is used to infer the posterior distributions of both hydrologic and error model parameters. Parameter and residual error uncertainties are integrated...
Conserving a network of representative physical environments is a strategy that could conserve species both now and into the future, while allowing them to move in response to the climate. The key to implementing such a strategy is to define the physical environments in a way that is maximally relevant to species. We created comprehensive maps of geology, elevation zones, and landforms for the Eastern U.S. and then examined the relationships between these factors and 3434 rare species at 85,613 locations. Based on an index of importance derived from the number of species samples and an index of the percent above expected that a species was found on a feature, most species showed strong preferences for specific settings:...
Enduring features (EFs; geophysical settings) are worthy conservation targets. We assembled data on EFs for the nation and performed an ecoregion-based GAP Analysis on their conservation status. Ecoregions that circumscribe mountains tend to have more EFs, and ecoregions in the west, where public lands make up more of the total land area, have more EFs within conservation lands. The middle of the country is relatively low in EF diversity, but nonetheless the number of EFs in conservation lands is low. Areas of high EF diversity in the Edwards Plateau also contained a diversity of rare species occurrences. We generated a new EF data set for the eastern USA and evaluated the distribution of rare species in terms of...
The National Stream Internet (NSI) project was funded by the Landscape Conservation Cooperative program and led by researchers from USFS, CSIRO, NOAA, and USGS. The project developed a national analytical infrastructure for stream data that can be applied consistently anywhere in the country to develop new information at low cost. To create that infrastructure, the NSI project developed compatibility among key digital stream geospatial data and analysis tools. Those included the EPA/USGS NHD-Plus v.2 stream hydrography layer, sets of stream reach descriptors, and tools for implementing spatial statistical network models. The NSI enables consistent application of sophisticated analysis tools to many types of stream...
Landscape Conservation Cooperatives are public-private partnerships composed of federal, state, and local governments, Tribes and First Nations, non-governmental organizations, universities, interested public and private organizations, international jurisdictions, and others working together to address landscape and seascape scale conservation issues. However, numerous approaches to landscape conservation design (LCD) exist and the nuances among these efforts makes integration of LCD with other planning efforts and products, both within and across Landscape Conservation Cooperative boundaries, a challenge. We reviewed and synthesized information on LCD projects in the eastern United States to better understand challenges...
This work provides a flexible and scalable framework to assess the impacts of climate change on streamflow and stream temperature within the North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (NALCC) region. This is accomplished through use of lumped parameter, physically-based, conceptual hydrologic and stream temperature models formulated in a hierarchical Bayesian framework. This allows for model predictions of streamflow and temperature at ungaged locations and a formal accounting of model estimate uncertainty at each location, something not previously achieved in these models. These environmental models also link seamlessly with the land use and fish models. The goal for this project was to provide: 1) Estimates...
The North American Bat Monitoring Program (NABat) is a multi-agency, multi-national effort and is designed to address the need for a program that addresses standardized monitoring of bat species across multiple taxa in North America. The development of NABat has incorporated the expertise of bat biologists, wildlife managers, policy makers, statisticians, and data managers throughout the process. The first step in the development of NABat was to build consensus within the community of North American bat researchers and biologists on feasible monitoring techniques and protocols to assess species responses to white-nose syndrome (WNS). In summer 2012, funding was obtained from the National Landscape Conservation Cooperative...
These 26 climate envelope models and associated “read me” file are described in the final report for the LCC-funded project, “Climate Envelope Models in Support of Landscape Conservation.” These climate envelope models describe the climate where each species currently lives and then map the geographic shift of that range under climate change. Multiple climage change scenarios inform these models. For more information please consult the final report for this project or the website, “Climate Envelope Modeling for Threatened and Endangered Species,” available at http://crocdoc.ifas.ufl.edu/projects/climateenvelopemodeling/.
