Resources

Explore Appalachian landscapes through a collection of maps and data layers showing the “lay of the land” from an ecosystem services perspective.

In order to understand ongoing and future climate change and its impacts on ecosystem services, we must have a grasp on historical ranges of climate variability. Fortunately, detailed weather station data are available in the United States for thousands of locations over the last century.

The benefits that people derive from landscapes depend not only on what kinds of ecosystems are present, but also on who uses them and how. The ways in which people use and impact land depends upon social preferences and needs, and on economic and demographic patterns. Land use information is clearly important for understanding human relationships with ecosystem services, but it is not sufficient in itself. Social and economic data are also crucial, but they can be more challenging because they are rarely tailored to meet the needs of resource management and conservation efforts.

The National Cohesive Wildland Fire Management Strategy, initiated in 2009 and finalized in 2014, provides a national vision for wildland fire management. This highly collaborative effort establishes three overarching goals, and describes stakeholder-driven processes for achieving them: (1) resilient landscapes; (2) fire-adapted communities; and (3) safe and effective wildfire response. The scientific rigor of this program was ensured with the establishment of the National Science and Analysis Team (NSAT).

This presentation by Dr. Daniel Hanks shares information on the method used to derived the aquatic condition score used in Phase II of the LCD.

An online tool enables partners to ask multiple questions about the underlying data, such as why is this place important and what priorities are within this area.

This dataset provides a watershed index of surface drinking water importance, a watershed index of forest importance to surface drinking water, and a watershed index to highlight the extent to which development, fire, and insects and disease threaten forests important for surface drinking water. This symbology for this layer is based on the index value for insect and disease threat to forests which are important to surface drinking water on a range from 1-100.

Conservation planning is concerned with spatially identifying and prioritizing lands and waters important for functioning ecosystems and biodiversity. It is a science utilizing geographic information systems and large datasets to generate scenario-based maps of conservation potential. These scenarios can balance social, economic, and regulatory constraints with processes that occur over time and space. The planning process itself, as well as final products, helps practitioners prioritize where and when to take conservation action.

2015 Scientific Reports Related to this Collaboration with Clemson University. Robert F. Baldwin, Paul B. Leonard. PLoS ONE10(10): Published: October 14, 2015

Landscape conservation cooperatives (LCCs) are conservation-science partnerships between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and other federal agencies, states, tribes, NGOs, universities and stakeholders within a geographically defined area. They inform resource management decisions to address national-scale stressors, including habitat fragmentation, genetic isolation, spread of invasive species, and water scarcity, all of which are accelerated by climate change. This dataset represents the geographic boundary of the Appalachian LCC.

The objective of this project was to develop some basic stream classification attributes for the entire Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership (SARP) region and to provide more detailed attributes in the eastern section of the SARP geography (9 states: AL, FL, GA, KY, NC, SC, TN, WV, VA) where additional data and modeling capacity was available. The final product is a mapped dataset of information linked to the NHDPlus medium resolution hydrography that can be used to classify stream reaches.

The Appalachian Mountains provide a multitude of habitats that are essential for hundreds of breeding, migrant, and wintering bird species. Its rugged terrain is dominated by forest and woodlands that span 15 states and contain several major eastern rivers that are heavily relied upon by waterfowl. But historical and current land-use changes, environmental disturbances, and other factors are resulting in population declines of more than 1/3 of bird species that breed and winter in the region.

The Appalachian LCC Conservation Planning Atlas (CPA) is a platform for data discovery, sharing and collaboration for stakeholders throughout the Appalachian LCC region. With the CPA you can search for spatial datasets, visualize LCC-supported projects, and learn more about conservation science and design in the region.

Aquatic Planning Units are derived from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) National Hydrography Dataset (NHD)+ v. 2 catchments. They contain information used throughout the NatureScape (landscape conservation design) development. The tables include summaries of information within each catchment including predictor variables. See SI.

Aquatic connectivity was modeled across the entire Landscape Conservation Cooperative geography at the catchment
and watershed scales. To evaluate aquatic connectivity, the density of dams and road crossings was used as these are
known to disrupt connectivity within aquatic systems. Connectivity data for dams and road crossings were
created from the StreamCat database. The density of dams and roads was multiplied, at the catchment and watershed

August 15-16, 2017 Tennessee Aquarium, Chattanooga, TN Post-Meeting Summary

This dataset represents the aquatic conservation projects within the Upper Tennessee River Basin generalized by Hydrologic Unit Code (HUC) 8 watershed. The information was obtained at the first annual meeting of the Upper Tennessee Imperiled Aquatic Species Strategy in 2016.

Find here the Agenda and recorded Webinar from the June 29th Quarterly TRBN call

Find here the agendas, notes, and presentations associated with the November 2016 TRBN Quarterly Webinar

A classification system and map was developed for stream and river systems in the Appalachian LCC region, encompassing parts of 17 states. The product is intended to complement state-based stream classifications by unifying them into a single consistent system that represents the region’s natural flowing aquatic habitats. The results can be used to understand ecological flow relationships and inform conservation planning for aquatic biodiversity in the region.

Stream habitats for this project were classified using six primary attributes: size, gradient, temperature, hydrology, buffering capacity, and confinement.

This study developed a mapped classification system for stream and river systems in the Appalachian LCC region to inform conservation planning for aquatic biodiversity. Stream habitats were classified using six primary attributes: size, gradient, temperature, hydrology, buffering capacity, and confinement. Information on each variable was based on extensive data compiled or modeled. Variable classes were then combined to yield a regional taxonomy.

Developing consistent region-wide information to ensure enough water for people and wildlife.

Identifying aquatic ecosystems requires a classification of stream and lake features into recognizable categories. Although a number of nationally recognized terrestrial community classifications exist, currently there is no national or international standard for classifying aquatic communities or ecosystems. Despite the lack of a national aquatic community classification, aquatic ecosystem classifications and frameworks have been developed at a variety of spatial scales to reflect the distribution of aquatic biological communities.