These heatmaps were created from responses to an ecosystem stressors ranking exercise from 157 conservation professionals working in the Chihuahuan Desert. The ranking exercise was created by the Borderlands Research Institute at Sul Ross State University, in Alpine, Texas. The exercise was sent to conservation partners within the Chihuahuan Desert region in the winter of 2018 and 2019. Participants were asked to identify counties in the US and municipalities in Mexico where they focus their conservation work. Participants were asked to rank the top 3 stressors facing 4 categories in 3 priority ecosystems.
Priority Ecosystems:1. Grassland/Desertscrub Ecosystems 2. Riparian/Aquatic Ecosystems3. Montane Woodlands Ecosystems
Within the 3 Ecosystems, 4 stressor categories:1. Habitat Fragmentation, Degradation, and Loss2. Ecosystem Functionality3. Invasive Animal Species4. Invasive & Problematic Plant Species
Participants also identified the top 3 ecosystem services they believed could benefit from collaborative conservation.
These heatmaps show the percentage of participants who reported as working in each county/municipality that chose the stressor featured in each heatmap as a top 1, 2, or 3 stressor in each ecosystem category. The heatmaps show only the results for the 3 stressors that were identified the most frequently as a top 1, 2, or 3 stressors for each ecosystem category. If a participants ranked a stressor as a top 3 stressor, the result was applied to all counties and municipalities that they identified as areas where they focus their conservation work. Stressors that show as red show the highest concentration of participants identifying this as a stressor in those counties.
The layer file is symbolized to show the concentration of participants with colors representing:1. dark green (cool) 0% of participants voting this stressor as a top 3 stressor in that county/municipality.2. green 0.0001% - 24.99% of participants voting this stressor as a top 3 stressor in that county/municipality.3. yellow 25-49.99% of participants voting this stressor as a top 3 stressor in that county/municipality.4. orange 50% - 74.99% of participants voting this stressor as a top 3 stressor in that county/municipality.4. red (hot) 75% - 100% of participants voting this stressor as a top 3 stressor in that county/municipality.
