Resources

Description of condition index value scores for estuarine tidal marsh along and within 10 km of the GCPO LCC Gulf Coast subgeography. A series of raster calculations were used in a dichotomous decision-based framework to compile a per-pixel draft condition index value at a 10 m resolution for GCPO estuarine tidal marsh based on the number of configuration and condition endpoints met within each marsh pixel. Pixels not identified as a estuarine marsh but that were identified as having the potential to be marsh were given a score of 1, provided the pixels were not classified as developed.

This project will expand the East Gulf Coastal Plain's existing grassland bird habitat model for prioritizing habitat management to include non-avian species of conservation concern in theGulf Coastal Plains and Ozarks region. It will also incorporate non-biological economics and cost effectiveness objectives into the decision framework.

The balance between economic needs and natural resource conservation will become more tenuous in the future as a result of a myriad of environmental stressors. We propose a methodology that can help guide forest management practices whenever adequate species locational data and quality forest or land use data exist. More specifically, the results of this study can be used to evaluate alternative land and silviculture management scenarios in terms of creating or maintaining high-quality forest habitat for a specific species.

This data represents an assessment of forest composition used in the ecological assessment of upland hardwood systems by the GCPO LCC. We used a combination of remote sensing products including 2011 National Land Cover Database (NLCD) forest classes and the 2011 MAV forest classification layer produced by the Lower Mississippi Valley Joint Venture to delineate patches of all forest types in the GCPO LCC.

Limited midstory density was also identified in the Integrated Science Agenda as an important component of upland hardwood systems in the GCPO geography, with midstory coverage ≤20% indicating a healthy additional vertical strata in the system. Midstory is an important habitat component for several ISA priority species, particularly those avian species who require midstory structure for nesting such as the wood thrush (Hylocichla mustelina). We again used plot-level Forest Inventory and Assessment data imputed at 250 m resolution across the GCPO LCC to assess tree density.

This layer was created by selecting classes relevant to conservation of the grassland-prairie-savanna broadly defined habitat from the LANDFIRE Existing Vegetation Type (evt) spatial data product clipped to the boundary of the GCPO LCC. The layer was generated as in input layer for the Draft Grassland Condition Index raster data layer in support of the GCPO LCC rapid ecological assessment of the Grassland-Prairie-Savanna Priority Habitat.

The Gulf Coastal Plains and Ozarks (GCPO) Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) has conducted an ecological assessment of various landscape characteristics, or endpoints, outlined in the LCC Integrated Science Agenda. This data layer addresses the forested wetland amount desired landscape endpoint for the forested wetland ecosystem in the Mississippi Alluvial Valley subgeography of the GCPO LCC. This data was created by reclassification of the 2011 National Land Cover Dataset (NLCD) to pull out only the woody wetlands class (90) from the NLCD dataset.

The alligator gar (Atractosteus spatula; AG) is a large, long-lived, physostomous fish that prefer slow-moving rivers, bayous, and oxbows most of the year, and require access to inundated floodplains or wetland vegetation for spawning and nursery habitats (Inebnit 2009; Kluender 2011, Buckmeier 2013). Historically, AG were distributed throughout the central U.S., ranging from Oklahoma southward to the Gulf of Mexico but more recently, abundances have declined and AG is now considered vulnerable to localized extirpation (Ferrara 2001) .

This project will address species-habitat relationships for a priority aquatic system for the GCPO LCC, Mainstem Big Rivers. Specifically, the project will collect subsurface aquatic habitat data using side-scan sonar and high resolution bathymetry data in the Pearl River system of Louisiana. This project expands on current work ongoing in the Pearl River, and would extend habitat data collection for the purposes of making recommendations on restoration of aquatic habitat for species endpoints in this aquatic system.

Conservation planning and delivery is often carried out by multiple stakeholders in isolation and constrained to political boundaries.  Developing a regional conservation blueprint through partnership is an important component of the effort to conserve biodiversity in the face of declining agency capacity (staff and budgets) and rapidly changing landscapes and climate.  In 2012, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arkansas committed to developing a shared vision for conservation in the Ozark Highlands ecological region.  Staff from the Gulf Coastal Plains & Ozarks Landscape Conservation Cooperative

These layers represent estimates of imputed tree density calculated as part of the ecological assessment of upland hardwood systems. The GCPO Integrated Science Agenda targets tree densities of around 40 trees/acre for upland hardwood woodland systems and around 80 trees/acre for upland hardwood forest systems. These metrics should be correlates with target endpoints of basal area and canopy cover, though not entirely synonymous. We again used plot-level FIA data imputed across the GCPO LCC to assess tree density.

This Ecological Assessment includes a large proportion of rivers and streams throughout the GCPO but excludes the smaller and steeper streams that are most abundant across the Ozark Highlands, Ouachita Mountains (WGCP), and higher elevations of the East Gulf Coastal Plains. We defined medium-sized streams and rivers as free-flowing streams with an average annual flow of 10 to 6,000 cubic feet/sec (cfs) and sitting at an elevation <=130 meters according to the National Hydrography Dataset (v2).

Open Pine Woodland and Savanna was assessed by evaluating endpoint variable values from spatial data layers. Spatial data inputs included a set of selected ecological system and land use classes from the National GAP Land Cover Data Product and estimated percent canopy cover from NLCD 2011. Midstory conditions, average tree diameter, and basal area endpoint thresholds were derived from US Forest Service data products that use remote sensing data to impute Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) data across the landscape.

Standing dead trees, or snags, are an important habitat element in any forested system, and provide diurnal or seasonal shelter for many LCC priority species. The ISA landscape endpoint for snag density in upland hardwood woodland and forest systems targets one large (≥16” dbh) snag for every five acres of forest (or approximately ~0.2 large snags/acre), reflected by cavity-roosting habitat needs of the silver-haired bat (Lasionycteris noctivagans) and ample other avian, and mammalian species that require cavities in snags to carry out their life history.

The Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership engaged regional aquatic experts to provide input into the development of desired ecological states - defined by landscape and species endpoints - for each of the broadly defined Freshwater Aquatic habitat types listed in the Gulf Coastal Plains and Ozarks Landscape Conservation Cooperative's draft Integrated Science Agenda.

Tidal marsh ecosystems are predicted to change significantly over the next century in the northern Gulf of Mexico. Sea level rise will inundate current habitat, erosion and accretion will build new marsh elsewhere, and saltwater intrusion will change vegetation communities and habitat structure over much of the region. For tidal marsh endemics like Clapper Rails (Rallus crepitans) these environmental changes create uncertainty in their future distribution and abundance.

This project will use more than 10 years of monitoring data to develop biometric habitat models for 9 of the Gulf Coastal Plains and Ozarks Landscape Conservation Cooperative's species endpoints within the open pine woodland and savanna habitat type. This project will also evaluate desired ecological states as defined in the Integrated Science Agenda for their ability to predict species occurrence and identify habitat attributes that can be manipulated to create suitable habitat conditions for these species.

The Gulf Coastal Plains and Ozarks (GCPO) region is, to a large extent, defined by its mainstem big rivers, with eight of the largest ten rivers (by discharge) in the lower U.S. terminating here. Those rivers are the Mississippi, Ohio, Missouri, Tennessee, Mobile, Atchafalaya, Red, and Arkansas. While

this assessment focuses on rivers of the MAV, the analysis has also been extended to big rivers throughout the GCPO.

Average tree diameter (dbh) is also an important forest condition for some species requiring large trees and subsequent tree cavities for denning/nesting/roosting sites. The GCPO LCC ISA targets diameter of upland hardwood forest and woodland trees to be ≥14” dbh. The standardized Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) national program, which collects data using standardized field protocols across counties in every state annually, may be the only landscape-scale data source feasible to investigate average tree diameter in the absence of other large-scale data sources in the GCPO geography.

This illustrated guide, written by GCPO LCC staff, covers some of the basic functions of the Conservation Planning Atlas on the Databasin platform

The desired ecological state for priority habitat systems should characterize the least impacted condition – systems in this condition should be targets for maintenance/protection and the goal of restoration activities in degraded systems. In the GCPO LCC Integrated Science Agenda (ISA), a

general description of the desired ecological state for high gradient streams and rivers of the Ozark Highlands is: “Small springs, runs, and headwaters characterized by clear, clean, and relatively cold water in largely undisturbed forest settings.”

This data represents an assessment of forest patch size used in the ecological assessment of upland hardwood systems by the GCPO LCC. We used a combination of remote sensing products including 2011 National Land Cover Database (NLCD) forest classes and the 2011 MAV forest classification layer produced by the Lower Mississippi Valley Joint Venture to delineate patches of all forest types in the GCPO LCC.

This project will address species-habitat relationships for a priority aquatic system for the GCPO LCC, Mainstem Big Rivers.  Specifically, the project will collect subsurface aquatic habitat data using side-scan sonar and high resolution bathymetry data in the Pearl River system of Louisiana.  This project expands on current work ongoing in the Pearl River, and would extend habitat data collection for the purposes of making recommendations on restoration of aquatic habitat for species endpoints in this aquatic system.  This project directly addresses landscape conservation design and will

The Gulf Coastal Plains and Ozarks Landscape Conservation Cooperative (GCPO) is a regional collaboration across agency and ownership boundaries to conserve sustainable landscapes in the face of global change. Planning for sustainable landscapes is hampered by uncertainty in how species will respond to conservation actions amidst impacts from landscape and climate change, especially when those impacts are also uncertain. Conservation is also complicated by the complexities of the planning decisions, including tradeoffs among competing species objectives.