Gulf Marine Mammals (Southeast Blueprint Indicator) [U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service]
{'name': 'Department of the Interior'} Full Details
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Full Details
- Title
- Gulf Marine Mammals (Southeast Blueprint Indicator) [U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service]
- Description
- Reason for SelectionMarine mammals help identify key areas of ocean productivity and overall ocean health in the Gulf of America, are regularly monitored, and resonate with a variety of audiences. Marine mammals are often used as ocean health indicators due to their long lifespans, feeding at a high trophic levels, and large blubber stores that can serve as repositories for anthropogenic chemicals and toxins (Bossart 2011).Input DataGulf of Mexico Marine Assessment Program for Protected Species (GoMMAPPS): GoMMAPPS marine mammal spatial density model outputs (version 2.2), accessed 12-14-2022Based on ship-based and aerial line-transect surveys conducted in the U.S. waters of the Gulf of America between 2003 and 2019, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Southeast Fisheries Science Center developed spatial density models (SDMs) for cetacean and sea turtle species for the entire Gulf of America. SDMs were developed using a generalized additive modeling framework to determine the relationship between species abundance and environmental variables (monthly averaged oceanographic conditions during 2015-2019).2019 National Land Cover Database (NLCD)Southeast Blueprint 2023 subregions: Marine (combined Atlantic & Gulf of America)Southeast Blueprint 2023 extentMapping StepsReplace all values of -9999 with 0.Convert to monthly rasters for each species/species group using the following fields: "Jan_n", "Feb_n", "Mar_n", "Apr_n", "May_n", "Jun_n", "Jul_n", "Aug_n", "Sep_n", "Oct_n", "Nov_n", and "Dec_n". The pygmy/dwarf sperm whale model only includes data for April through November. The rest of the species/species group models include data for all months. Use the Southeast Blueprint 2023 marine subregion for pixel size and snap.Use the beaked whale data and the NLCD to create a mask to define the extent of the Zonation analysis. The beaked whale data represents the full sample area for the other species in GoMMAPPS. The area covered by the marine mammal models overlaps with land in a few areas. This mask removes from the analysis all landcover classes that are not open water (not a value of11 in the NLCD) within the extent of the NLCD. The resulting Zonation maskcovers open water areas where there is both modeled data for marine mammals and NLCD data to remove land.To identify important areas for each species, use the core area algorithm (CAZMAX) in Zonation 5. First, include all species but do separate runs by season: Spring (Mar, Apr, May), Summer (Jun, Jul, Aug), Fall (Sep, Oct, Nov), and Winter (Dec, Jan, Feb). We did this for two reasons: 1) Some conservation decisions in the marine environmental are seasonal and 2) Computational limitations prevented a full run for all species and months. Then do a final Zonation run with the seasonal results as inputs. This creates a single layer that accounts for different species and monthly variation while also producing seasonal intermediary products to help with specific marine decisions.Reproject the Zonation results to Albers Equal Area.Convert from a floating point raster with a range of 0-1 to an integer raster ranging from 0-100.Reclassify to values of 1-10 based on increments of 10 to produce the indicator values seen below.Use the NLCD and the modeling extent of the source data to identify areas of land not used in the analysis and assign those pixels a value of 0, since they are outside the scope of this marine indicator.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 valuesIndicator values are assigned as follows:10 = >90th percentile of importance for marine mammal index species (across larger analysis area)9 = >80th-90th percentile of importance8 = >70th-80th percentile of importance7 = >60th-70th percentile of importance6 = >50th-60th percentile of importance5 = >40th-50th percentile of importance4 = >30th-40th percentile of importance3 = >20th-30th percentile of importance2 = >10th-20th percentile of importance1 = ≤10th percentile of importance0 = LandKnown IssuesWhile this layer has a 30 m resolution, the source data was coarser than that. We downsampled hexagons with an area of 40 sq km to 30 m pixels.The indicator may underrepresent striped dolphin habitat. While model results are available for this species, there were processing issues that prevented the use of models for this species in the indicator.Other Things to Keep in MindWe ran the Zonation analysis across open water areas where there were both marine mammal models and NLCD data present to discriminate between land and water. We did this for multiple reasons. We didn't run Zonation across the full area covered by the GoMMAPPS data because the full files were very large and required long processing times. We also anticipated that Zonation would not have been able to computationally handle the full area. We extended the Zonation run beyond U.S. waters to try to account for areas of high mammal density just south of the Blueprint's Gulf marine boundary. As a result, the various classes within the indicator do not cover equal areas within the indicator's extent, as you might expect with a percentile-based indicator—they cover equal areas within the full analysis area, and then are clipped down to produce the indicator.Disclaimer: Comparing with Older Indicator VersionsThere 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 Bossart, G. D. "Marine Mammals as Sentinel Species for Oceans and Human Health." Veterinary Pathology Online 48, no. 3 (May 1, 2011): 676-90. [https://doi.org/10.1177/0300985810388525]. Litz J, Aichinger Dias L, Rappucci G, Martinez A, Soldevilla M, Garrison L, Mullin K, Barry K, Foster M. 2022. Cetacean and sea turtle spatial density model outputs from visual observations using line-transect survey methods aboard NOAA vessel and aircraft platforms in the Gulf of Mexico from 2003-06-12 to 2019-07-31 (NCEI Accession 0256800). NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information. Dataset. [https://doi.org/10.25921/efv4-9z56].Moilanen, A., Lehtinen, P., Kohonen, I., Virtanen, E., Jalkanen, J. and Kujala, H. 2022.Novel methods for spatial prioritization with applications in conservation, land use planning and ecological impact avoidance. Methods in Ecology and Evolution. [https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/2041-210X.13819].
- Creator
- {'name': 'Department of the Interior'}
- Temporal Coverage
- Last modified 2025-03-04
- Date Issued
- 2023-09-20
- 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 17, 2023
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Cite and Reference
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Citation
{'name': 'Department of the Interior'} (2023). Gulf Marine Mammals (Southeast Blueprint Indicator) [U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service]. . https://gis-fws.opendata.arcgis.com/content/fws::gulf-marine-mammals-southeast-blueprint-indicator-2023 (imagery) -
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