Caribbean Habitat Patch Size (Small Islands) (Southeast Blueprint Indicator) [U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service]
{'name': 'Department of the Interior'}
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- Title
- Caribbean Habitat Patch Size (Small Islands) (Southeast Blueprint Indicator) [U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service]
- Description
- Reason for Selection Large areas of intact natural habitat are favorable for conservation of numerous species, including reptiles and amphibians, birds, and large mammals. Historically, many Caribbean islands, especially smaller ones, experienced dramatic habitat alteration across much of their land mass from intensive colonial agriculture (such as sugar cane cultivation) and later by urbanization and other anthropogenic modifications (Fitzpatrick et al. 2007, CEPF 2023). As a result, contiguous natural habitat patches are particularly important for supporting native species, restoring native vegetation, and maintaining ecosystem services. This indicator roughly follows the same approach for evaluating patch size used by the intact habitat cores indicator in the continental part of the Southeast Blueprint (Esri 2017), but lowers the highest patch size threshold, recognizing that the maximum patch size on small Caribbean islands is lower than in the continental Southeast and on large islands. Input Data Southeast Blueprint 2023 subregions: Caribbean Caribbean island extent and size Southeast Blueprint 2023 extent 2020LANDFIRE Existing Vegetation Type(EVT) andOperational Roads (Roads)(v2.2.0) for Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands;access the data for U.S. Insular Areas Mapping Steps Reclassify the LANDFIRE EVT data into natural and unnatural classes. All classes in "EVT_NAME" that start with "Quarries", "Developed", or "Agriculture" are considered unnatural. "Caribbean bush fruit and berries", which captures sun coffee plantations, is also considered unnatural, while "tropical agroforestry plantation", which captures shade coffee, is considered natural. Water is classified as "natural". Reclassify the Caribbean island extent layer to assign all islands a value of 1 and assign the ocean a value of NoData. Multiply the reclassified LANDFIRE natural/unnatural layer and island extent data. This makes the ocean NoData, but retains freshwater, smaller salt ponds, and enclosed brackish water areas, as well as terrestrial areas on the islands. Reclassify primary, secondary, and tertiary roads in the LANDFIRE roads layer as barriers. Combine the natural/unnatural raster and roads raster to identify natural areas without roads. Use region group to find the size of patch that each pixel belongs to. Reclassify based on the final indicator values seen below. Make a small island mask using the island extent layer for "small" and "medium" islands. Use this mask to include only habitat patches within that mask, excluding large islands, which are captured in a different indicator. Clip to the Caribbean Blueprint 2023 subregion. As a final step, clip to the spatial extent of Southeast Blueprint 2023. Note: For more details on the mapping steps, code used to create this layer is available in theSoutheast Blueprint Data Downloadunder > 6_Code. Final indicator values Indicator values are assigned as follows: 4 = Large patch (>1,000 acres) 3 = Medium patch (>100-1,000 acres) 2 = Small patch (>10-100 acres) 1 = Very small patch (≤10 acres) 0 = Developed or agriculture Known Issues Some small dirt roads serve as hard boundaries for habitat cores.While this makes sense for some species, this indicator likely underestimates the effective size of the patch for some more mobile animals. This indicator doesn't account for variation in habitat condition within the patch. In Eastern St. Croix, where it's particularly dry, this indicator can underestimate or overestimate patch size. LANDFIRE has trouble differentiating pasture from natural thornscrub in this area. Pasture isn't considered natural in this indicator, so any areas of thornscrub misclassified as pasture would underestimate patch size, while areas of pasture classified as thornscrub would overestimate patch size. Some docks are overprioritized due landcover misclassification. LANDFIRE sometimes misclassifies docks as forests, so they can get included in habitat patches for this indicator. Disclaimer: Comparing with Older Indicator Versions There are numerous problems with using Southeast Blueprint indicators for change analysis. Please consult Blueprint staff if you would like to do this (email hilary_morris@fws.gov). Literature Cited Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund (CEPF). 2023. Caribbean Islands - Threats. [https://www.cepf.net/our-work/biodiversity-hotspots/caribbean-islands/threats]. Esri Green Infrastructure Center, Inc. 2017. Esri Green Infrastructure Data Description.[https://www.arcgis.com/sharing/rest/content/items/5561da06127d48a982d6b91929f29666/data]. Fitzpatrick, Scott & Keegan, William. (2007). Human Impacts and Adaptations in the Caribbean Islands: an Historical Ecology Approach. Earth and Environmental Science Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. 98. 29 - 45. 10.1017/S1755691007000096. [https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/earth-and-environmental-science-transactions-of-royal-society-of-edinburgh/article/abs/human-impacts-and-adaptations-in-the-caribbean-islands-an-historical-ecology-approach/68BFF9386CA9BDAD3FB44E5C937AC92F]. LANDFIRE, Earth Resources Observation and Science Center (EROS), U.S. Geological Survey. Published August 1, 2022. LANDFIRE 2020 Existing Vegetation Type (EVT) Puerto Rico US Virgin Islands. LF 2020, raster digital data. Sioux Falls, SD. [https://www.landfire.gov]. LANDFIRE, Earth Resources Observation and Science Center (EROS), U.S. Geological Survey. Published August 1, 2022. LANDFIRE 2020 Operational Roads Puerto Rico US Virgin Islands. LF 2020, raster digital data. Sioux Falls, SD. [https://www.landfire.gov].
- Creator
- {'name': 'Department of the Interior'}
- Temporal Coverage
- Last modified 2024-10-09
- Date Issued
- 2023-09-25
- Rights
- The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) shall not be held liable for improper or incorrect use of the data described and/or contained herein. While the Service makes every reasonable effort to ensure the accuracy and completeness of data provided for distribution, it may not have the necessary accuracy or completeness required for every possible intended use. The Service recommends that data users consult the associated metadata record to understand the quality and possible limitations of the data. The Service creates metadata records in accordance with the standards endorsed by the Federal Geographic Data Committee. As a result of the above considerations, the Service gives no warranty, expressed or implied, as to the accuracy, reliability, or completeness of the data. It is the responsibility of the data user to use the data in a manner consistent with the limitations of geospatial data in general and these data in particular. Although these data have been processed successfully on a computer system at the Service, no warranty, expressed or implied, is made regarding the utility of the data on another system or for general or scientific purposes, nor shall the act of distribution constitute any such warranty. This applies to the use of the data both alone and in aggregate with other data and information.
- Access Rights
- Public
- Format
- Imagery
- Language
- English
- Date Added
- October 26, 2024
