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A combination of citizen science inventories and expert assessments will be used to collect critical baseline information on known spring and seep resources using the Spring Ecosystem Inventory and Assessment Protocols and adapting them as needed for the unique arid Sky Island ecosystems. The assessment will collect information on channel morphology, riparian and wetland vegetation, water quality, aquatic macroinvertebrates, and wildlife. This information will be combined with historic data from cooperating agencies (Pima County, Santa Cruz County, USFS, NPA, USGS, USFWS, BLM, and AGFD) in a regional, on-line database to provide a landscape level context for managing resources, which was previously unavailable due...
Categories: Data, Project; Types: ArcGIS REST Map Service, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2011, AZ-02, AZ-03, Arizona, Arizona, All tags...
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The importance of riparian ecosystems in semiarid and arid regions has generated interest in understanding processes that drive the distribution and abundance of dominant riparian plants. Changes in streamflow patterns downstream of dams have profoundly affected riparian vegetation composition and structure. For example, in the southwestern United States, flow regulation has contributed to the replacement of many riparian forests historically dominated by the native Populus fremontii (Fremont Cottonwood) and Salix gooddingii (Goodding’s Willow) by the exotic species Tamarix spp. (Salt Cedar). The proposed project will help guide reservoir release decision making to enhance downstream recruitment of native cottonwood...
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The Desert LCC identified the need for a Protected Areas spatial database that showed land ownership, management designations and conservation status for lands in the United States and Mexico. However, the existing Protected Areas database was found to be particularly prone to boundary and database errors that affected its potential use. This USGS project will develop a single, seamless, error-free Protected Areas dataset for the full geographic scope of the Desert LCC. This will involve acquiring numerous spatial layers from Federal, State, and NGO organizations which are responsible for administering and/or managing areas that have a designated protected status. Protected Area will be categorized as defined by...
Categories: Data, Project; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2012, AZ-01, AZ-02, AZ-03, AZ-04, All tags...
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Executive Summary: Evolution of policies that guide operation of individual reservoir systems begins with a relative flurry of activity associated with building of dams. Over perhaps a ten year period, operations are proposed in anticipation of construction, implemented when a dam is complete, and then modified as the effects, capabilities, and limitations of the project become better understood. After these initial adjustments, the policy process slowly begins to simmer. Operational changes are the driven by short-term influences that are largely episodic (e.g. droughts and floods) and long-term influences (e.g. social and economic factors) that affect operations more gradually.
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Explore climate change impacts on vegetation across the Desert and Southern Rockies LCCs using historical monitoring data collected from 23 sites across the Sonoran, Chihuahuan, Mojave and Colorado Plateau deserts for 30-50 years. This data will then be combined with ecosystem water balance model simulations to establish features of water availability critical for plant species response. Results will allow managers to identify species and communities at risk under future climate scenarios based on predicted changes in plant water availability. Due to the high variability in soils, incorporating a detailed understanding of soil water availability beyond bioclimatic envelope approaches in the desert Southwest is essential...
Categories: Data, Project; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2012, AZ-02, AZ-03, AZ-04, Academics & scientific researchers, All tags...
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In the desert southwest biodiversity is facing a changing landscape due to human population growth, expansion of energy development, and from the persistent effects of climate change among other threats. The 2012 Desert LCC science needs document recognized the importance of modeling and predicting habitat area, fragmentation and corridor network connectivity for a broad range of wildlife taxa. Tools and methods from conservation planning are available to address some of these issues, but tools to evaluate the expected benefits of corridors in mitigating climate change effects are only in their infancy. This USGS project will use quantitative spatial analysis and principles from landscape ecology to determine where...
Categories: Data, Project; Types: Downloadable, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service, Shapefile; Tags: 2012, AZ-01, AZ-02, AZ-03, AZ-04, All tags...
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In response to the rapid and dramatic hydroecological deterioration of the Rio Grande through Big Bend, the Big Bend Conservation Cooperative (BBCC), a multi-disciplinary group of natural resource agencies, research institutions, and conservation organizations have been organizing and implementing a wide range of river rehabilitation, scientific research activities and climate change initiatives. More recently, the Basin and Bay Expert Science Team, part of an environmental flows initiative by the state of Texas, is using best available science to recommend environmental flow regimes for the major rivers of Texas. Limited understating of the sediment dynamics of the Rio Grande and riparian vegetation change hinders...
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Sky Island Alliance (SIA) is a non-governmental organizational that works to protect and restore the rich natural heritage of native species and habitats in the Sky Island Region. We work with volunteers, scientists, land-owners, public officials, and government agencies to establish protected areas, restore healthy landscapes, and promote public appreciation of the region’s unique biological diversity. Because of our long-standing collaborative relationships with land managers and our large corps of skilled volunteers, we were in a unique position to spearhead this project.SIA initiated this springs inventory, assessment and management planning project to develop baseline information on springs in the Sky Island...
Categories: Data, Publication; Types: ArcGIS REST Map Service, Citation, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2011, AZ-02, AZ-03, Arizona, Conservation NGOs, All tags...
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While we assessed the vulnerability of a number of different wildlife and plant species to climate change, none of those species exhibited high vulnerability to changes projected for the region and there was limited differentiation in vulnerability between the individual species. Given this shared level of vulnerability to climate change, we chose to focus our adaptation planning on grassland birds as they represent a large group with a diversity of habitat needs. These birds are obligate grassland wildlife species which have great potential to act as indicators for habitat quality since different species have distinct habitat structure needs. Participants in the adaptation planning workshop agreed that if the GP...
Categories: Data, Project; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2010, Animal Agriculture, CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ASSESSMENT MODELS, CO-01, CO-02, All tags...
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The Desert Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) is a partnership formed and directed by resource management entities as well as interested public and private entities in the Mojave, Sonoran, and Chihuahuan Desert and montane sky island regions of the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Desert LCC science depends on access to transboundary base datasets. Given the importance of vegetation such as grasslands and riparian vegetation in conservation science, a bi-national, landscape-scale vegetation data layer with classes relevant to Desert LCC research is crucial. One objective of this project is to investigate appropriate methodologies and landscape scales to create a Desert LCC binational land cover...
Categories: Data, Project; Tags: 2014, AZ-01, AZ-02, AZ-03, AZ-04, All tags...
Playas and other wetlands within the Great Plains Landscape Conservation Cooperative (GPLCC) provide essential habitat for many wetland-dependent vertebrate species and are especially important as migration and wintering areas for waterfowl and shorebirds. Playas in the GPLCC are at risk of unsustainable sediment accumulation, reduced inundation frequency, and declining hydroperiods due to agricultural intensification and a changing climate with expected decreases in annual precipitation, changing precipitation patterns, and higher summer temperatures. We propose to project distribution shifts and/or range reductions of several focal migrating shorebird, waterfowl, and waterbird species in response to climate change,...
Categories: Data, Project; Tags: 2013, BIRDS, CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ASSESSMENT MODELS, CO-01, CO-02, All tags...
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Amphibians and reptiles (herpetofauna) have been linked to specific microhabitat characteristics, microclimates, and water resources in riparian forests. Our objective was to relate variation in herpetofauna abundance to changes in habitat caused by a beetle used for Tamarix biocontrol (Diorhabda carinulata; Coleoptera: Chrysomelidae) and riparian restoration. During 2013 and 2014, we measured vegetation and monitored herpetofauna via trapping and visual encounter surveys (VES) at locations affected by biocontrol along the Virgin River in the Mojave Desert of the southwestern United States. Twenty-one sites were divided into four riparian stand types based on density and percent cover of dominant trees (Tamarix,...
Categories: Data, Publication; Types: Citation, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2012, AZ-01, AZ-02, AZ-03, AZ-04, All tags...
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In response to the rapid and dramatic hydroecological deterioration of the Rio Grande through Big Bend, the Big Bend Conservation Cooperative (BBCC), a multi-disciplinary group of natural resource agencies, research institutions, and conservation organizations have been organizing and implementing a wide range of river rehabilitation, scientific research activities and climate change initiatives. More recently, the Basin and Bay Expert Science Team, part of an environmental flows initiative by the state of Texas, is using best available science to recommend environmental flow regimes for the major rivers of Texas. Limited understating of the sediment dynamics of the Rio Grande and riparian vegetation change hinders...
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The Navajo Nation covers over 70,000 km2 in the Four Corners area of Utah, Arizona and New Mexico. Climate data from the Navajo Nation have been both sparse and sporadic during the past 100 years, and have been limited to daily data from a handful of National Weather Service Cooperative Observer sites. Climate science researchers have identified the area in and around the Navajo Nation as among the most climate-data poor in the region, and the need to remedy this situation has been identified by both the Desert LCC and the Southern Rockies LCC. This USGS Arizona Water Science Center digitized paper climate data records recorded between 1988 and 1995, including portions of 25 volumes of fan-fold line-printer computer...
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Riparian vegetation provides crucial habitat for wildlife and is a high conservation priority for land managers throughout the Southwest but a central scientific challenge is to generate quantitative predictions of how changes in water availability will affect the amount and quality of riparian wildlife habitat. Researchers will study areas that have long-term datasets available (i.e., hydrological, geomorphological, biological), that characterize a broad range of riparian conditions found in the Southwest. Building on recently developed models funded by the USGS National Climate Change and Wildlife Science Center (NCCWSC), this work will link various hydrologic, geomorphic and habitat models to better understand...
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Description: Invasive saltcedar is the third most abundant tree in Southwestern riparian systems. Resource managers must often balance the goals of protecting native wildlife species and habitats with the control of non-native and invasive plants. This project examined the impact of the tamarisk leaf beetle (a biocontrol agent) on amphibian and reptile (herpetofauna) and bird populations and communities along the Virgin River in Utah, Arizona and Nevada.Building on two years of pre-biocontrol monitoring, the researchers tracked changes in herpetofauna communities as the biocontrol entered a system dominated by a non-native plant species. The tamarisk leaf beetle is known to be eaten by several wildlife species....
Categories: Data, Publication; Types: Citation, Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2012, AZ-01, AZ-02, AZ-03, AZ-04, All tags...
Submersed aquatic vegetation, a critical component of highly productive coastal ecosystems, is greatly affected by sea level rise. The Gulf Coast Prairie Landscape Conservation Cooperative needs consistent information on these natural resources along the Gulf of Mexico Coast to develop computer modeling tools. These tools will contribute to efforts to forecast the effects of climate change on the distribution, abundance, and diversity of submersed aquatic vegetation and the fish and wildlife that depend on them. This project was co-funded by the Gulf Coast Prairie and the Gulf Coastal Plains and Ozarks Landscape Conservation Cooperatives and the South Central Climate Adaptation Science Center. An alternate reference...
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We found few reports in the literature containing useful data on the nesting phenology of lesser prairie-chickens; therefore, managers must rely on short-term observations and measurements of parameters that provide some predictive insight into climate impacts on nesting ecology. Our field studies showed that prairie-chickens on nests were able to maintain relatively consistent average nest temperature of 31 °C and nest humidities of 56.8 percent whereas average external temperatures (20.3–35.0 °C) and humidities (35.2– 74.9 percent) varied widely throughout the 24 hour (hr) cycle. Grazing and herbicide treatments within our experimental areas were designed to be less intensive than in common practice. We determined...
Categories: Data, Project; Types: Map Service, OGC WFS Layer, OGC WMS Layer, OGC WMS Service; Tags: 2010, BIRDS, BREEDING PRODUCTIVITY, CLIMATE INDICATORS, Climate Change, All tags...


    map background search result map search result map Understanding the ecology, habitat use, phenology and thermal tolerance of nesting Lesser Prairie-Chickens to predict population level influences of climate change Implications of climate change for avian conservation in Great Plains landscapes Climate change planning for the Great Plains: Wildlife vulnerability assessment and potential for mitigation with grazing management LIDAR and Multispectral Imagery Data for the Rio Grande in Big Bend National Park: A Critical Need for Climate Change Mitigation Planning Predicting Effects of Climate Change on Riparian Obligate Species in the Southwestern United States Springs and Seeps Inventory, Assessment, and Management Planning Project Impact of Ecosystem Water Balance on Desert Vegetation: Quantification of Historical Patterns and Projection under Climate Change Corridors, Climate Change, and Conservation Planning in the Desert Southwest Navajo Nation Climate Data Recovery Development of Protected Areas Digital Spatial Data for the Desert LCC Managing water and riparian habitats on the Bill Williams River with scientific benefit for other desert river systems Desert LCC Land Cover Map Pilot Project Report, Inventory and Assessment Protocols, Adaptation Plan, and Presentation for: Springs in the Sky Island Region: Inventory, Assessment, and Management Planning Project Remote Acquisition of High Quality Topography (LIDAR) and Multispectral Imagery Data for the Rio Grande through the Big Bend National Park: A Critical Need for Climate Change Mitigation Planning Resources: Managing water and riparian habitats on the Bill Williams River with scientific benefit for other desert river systems Publication: The effects of riparian restoration following saltcedar (Tamarix spp.) biocontrol on habitat and herpetofauna along a desert stream Science Brief for Resource Managers: Effects of Biocontrol and Restoration on Wildlife in Southwestern Riparian Habitats LIDAR and Multispectral Imagery Data for the Rio Grande in Big Bend National Park: A Critical Need for Climate Change Mitigation Planning Remote Acquisition of High Quality Topography (LIDAR) and Multispectral Imagery Data for the Rio Grande through the Big Bend National Park: A Critical Need for Climate Change Mitigation Planning Managing water and riparian habitats on the Bill Williams River with scientific benefit for other desert river systems Resources: Managing water and riparian habitats on the Bill Williams River with scientific benefit for other desert river systems Publication: The effects of riparian restoration following saltcedar (Tamarix spp.) biocontrol on habitat and herpetofauna along a desert stream Science Brief for Resource Managers: Effects of Biocontrol and Restoration on Wildlife in Southwestern Riparian Habitats Report, Inventory and Assessment Protocols, Adaptation Plan, and Presentation for: Springs in the Sky Island Region: Inventory, Assessment, and Management Planning Project Springs and Seeps Inventory, Assessment, and Management Planning Project Navajo Nation Climate Data Recovery Predicting Effects of Climate Change on Riparian Obligate Species in the Southwestern United States Understanding the ecology, habitat use, phenology and thermal tolerance of nesting Lesser Prairie-Chickens to predict population level influences of climate change Implications of climate change for avian conservation in Great Plains landscapes Climate change planning for the Great Plains: Wildlife vulnerability assessment and potential for mitigation with grazing management Development of Protected Areas Digital Spatial Data for the Desert LCC Desert LCC Land Cover Map Pilot Project Corridors, Climate Change, and Conservation Planning in the Desert Southwest Impact of Ecosystem Water Balance on Desert Vegetation: Quantification of Historical Patterns and Projection under Climate Change