This layer shows the results for initial analyses of the ' Connectivity' potential Conservation Target for the Freshwater Forested Wetlands Priority Resource (PR). Three datasets were used in this exploration of Connectivity: CLIP 4.0 Greenways, CLIP 4.0 Landscape Integrity, and the Local Connectedness layer, one of the core datasets in the Nature Conservancy's Resiliency Project. Each dataset provides a slightly different aspect of Connectivity.
Each one of the potential data layers was masked using the PR raster to result in a spatial data layer of values within Freshwater Forested Wetlands. Further information on these analyses can be found in the Freshwater Forested Wetlands Initial Investigation of Conservation Targets webinar (pdf) found in this gallery.
Inputs:
CLIP 4.0 Greenways Layer
This layer was created as part of the Florida Ecological Greenways Network GIS Database. The Florida Ecological Greenways Network (FEGN) identifies opportunities to protect large, intact landscapes important for conserving Florida’s biodiversity and ecosystem services, and serves as a backbone for biodiversity and ecosystem protection efforts in Florida. An important goal of the FEGN is to protect a functionally connected network of public and private conservation lands from the tip of south Florida to the tip of the Florida panhandle while also potentially providing functional connectivity to conservation lands in Georgia and Alabama. Prioritization of the new FEGN base boundary is required to refine priority focal areas and facilitate implementation efforts by the Office of Greenways and Trails and partners and related conservation evaluation processes including the Florida Forever Conservation Needs Assessment. For addition information see the University of Florida, Center for Landscape Conservation Planning, 2015, and/or the CLIP v 4.0 technical report at www.fnai.org/clip_cfm. For this analysis, the greenways layer was resampled from 30x30m to 15x15m pixel size to match the PR layer, although this does not imply increased resolution or accuracy of the underlying data.
TNC Local Connectedness
The local connectedness layer is part of TNC Resiliency Project that provides insight into potential effects of climate change. A highly permeable landscape promotes resilience by facilitating range shifts and the reorganization of communities. Roads, development, dams, and other structures create resistance that interrupts or redirects movement and, therefore, lowers the permeability. Maintaining a connected landscape is the most widely cited strategy in the scientific literature for building resilience and has been suggested as an explanation for why there were few extinctions during the last period of comparable rapid climate change. This metric is an important component of resilience because it indicates whether a process is likely to be disrupted or how much access a species has to the micro-climates within its given neighborhood.
The original TNC layer was created using resistant kernel analysis, developed and run by Brad Compton using software developed by the UMASS CAPS program. Each cell of a resistance grid is coded with a resistance value base on land cover and roads. To calculate this metric, resistance weightswere assigned to the elements of a land cover map, based on land use, roads and railroads, and some very general differences in land cover types (forested vs. plantation forest, wetland vs. upland, etc. The local connectedness analysis was done on the resulting resistance surface at a 90-m cell size and evaluated connectedness for each cell out to 3 km. Results were score from 0 (least connected) to 100 (most connected). Actual scores had a mean of 37.27 and standard deviation of 20.14 for the southeastern region.
For more detailed information on the Resiliency Project, see https://www.conservationgateway.org/ConservationByGeography/NorthAmerica/UnitedStates/edc/reportsdata/terrestrial/resilience/Pages/default.aspx.
