West Virginia Imperiled Aquatic Species (Southeast Blueprint Indicator ) [U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service] {2023} Full Details
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Full Details
- Title:
- West Virginia Imperiled Aquatic Species (Southeast Blueprint Indicator ) [U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service] {2023}
- Description:
- Reason for Selection According to the Southeastern Freshwater Biodiversity Conservation Strategy, "the Southeastern United States is a global hotspot of freshwater biodiversity, supporting almost two-thirds of the country's fish species, over 90% of the US total species of mussels and nearly half of the global total for crayfish species. More than a quarter of this region's species are found nowhere else in the world. Unfortunately, this region is also a hotspot for imperilment. The number of imperiled freshwater fish species in the Southeast has risen 125% in the past 20 years" (RBC and TNACI). This indicator identifies areas with abundant rare and endemic aquatic species that would benefit from conservation action. It captures patterns of rare and endemic species diversity not well-represented by other freshwater indicators. It complements the other imperiled aquatic species indicator, which uses aquatic Species of Greatest Conservation Need, but does not yet cover West Virginia. Input Data Total number of at-risk aquatic animal species observed by HUC12 from the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) EnviroAtlas The data came from a NatureServe analysis that includes all non-plant (i.e., animal) aquatic species ranked as Imperiled (G1/G2) by NatureServe or listed as threatened or endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. More details are available in the associated EnviroAtlas factsheet. Estimated Floodplain Map of the Conterminous U.S. from the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) EnviroAtlas; see this factsheet for more information; download the data The EPA Estimated Floodplain Map of the Conterminous U.S. displays "...areas estimated to be inundated by a 100-year flood (also known as the 1% annual chance flood). These data are based on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) 100-year flood inundation maps with the goal of creating a seamless floodplain map at 30-m resolution for the conterminous United States. This map identifies a given pixel's membership in the 100-year floodplain and completes areas that FEMA has not yet mapped." Base Blueprint 2022 extent U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Watershed Boundary Dataset (WBD), accessed 12-2-2021: HUC12s 2023 U.S. Census TIGER/Line state boundaries, accessed 5-15-2023; download data Southeast Blueprint 2023 extent Mapping Steps Download the EnviroAtlasat-risk aquatic animal species observed dataset in Esri FileGeodatabse format and join the tabular data to the WBD HUC12 spatial data. Use the field with the total number of G1/G2 or threatened/endangered aquatic species to convert the vector HUC12 layer to a raster with 30 m cell size using the ArcGIS Polygon to Raster tool with a cell assignment type of cell center. Reclassify the species count values to the 1-9 indicator values seen below. Mask the resulting raster to the EPA estimated floodplain. Assign a value of 0 to all areas outside the EPA floodplain. Zero values are intended to help users better understand the extent of this indicator and make it perform better in online tools. Remove all areas outside of West Virginia using the TIGER/Line state boundary. Clip to the spatial extent of Base Blueprint 2022. 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 Indicatorvaluesareassignedasfollows: 5 = 4+ aquatic imperiled (G1/G2) or threatened/endangered animal species observed 4 = 3 aquatic imperiled (G1/G2) or threatened/endangered animal species observed 3 = 2 aquatic imperiled (G1/G2) or threatened/endangered animal species observed 2 = 1 aquatic imperiled (G1/G2) or threatened/endangered animal species observed 1 = 0 aquatic imperiled (G1/G2) or threatened/endangered animal species observed 0 = Not identified as a floodplain Known Issues This indicator uses a different definition of "imperiled" compared to the full imperiled aquatic species indicator that covers the rest of the Southeast. The West Virginia indicator defines imperiled as G1 (globally critically imperiled), G2 (globally imperiled), or threatened/endangered under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, while the full imperiled aquatic species indicator defines "imperiled" as a Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN). We are investigating ways to add aquatic SGCN data for WV to improve the consistency of the underlying data and eliminate the need for this separate indicator. For the HUC12 watersheds that intersect with the Kentucky and Virginia state lines, this indicator took precedence over the full imperiled aquatic species indicator because this indicator was more accurate at those state boundaries. As this indicator is based on occurrence records, poorly surveyed areas may be scored too low. Therefore, this data does not imply absence of species. The data in this indicator was last updated in 2011. Subwatersheds with new imperiled species discovered after 2011 would be scored too low. Compared to the more recent data from the Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership on aquatic Species of Greatest Conservation Need, which is used across the rest of the Southeast in the full imperiled aquatic species indicator, this WV-specific indicator likely underestimates imperiled aquatic species values. While this indicator generally includes the open water area of reservoirs, some open water portions of reservoirs are missing from the estimated floodplain dataset. 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 EPA EnviroAtlas. 2018. Estimated Floodplain Map of the Conterminous U.S. [https://enviroatlas.epa.gov/enviroatlas/DataFactSheets/pdf/Supplemental/EstimatedFloodplains.pdf]. The River Basin Center and The Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute. The Southeastern Freshwater Biodiversity Conservation Strategy. Accessed July 31, 2023. [https://southeastfreshwater.org/]. U.S. Department of Commerce, U.S. Census Bureau, Geography Division, Spatial Data Collection and Products Branch. TIGER/Line Shapefile, 2023, U.S. Current State and Equivalent National. 2023. [https://www.census.gov/geographies/mapping-files/time-series/geo/tiger-line-file.html]. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) Office of Research & Development (ORD) - National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL) and NatureServe. 2013. EnviroAtlas - NatureServe Analysis of Imperiled or Federally Listed Species by HUC-12 for the Conterminous United States. [https://edg.epa.gov/data/Public/ORD/EnviroAtlas/National]. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). 2012. National Hydrography Dataset Plus. 2.10. [https://www.horizon-systems.com/nhdplus/].
- Creator:
- Department of the Interior
- Provider:
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Open Data
- Resource Class:
- Imagery and Web services
- Temporal Coverage:
- 2023
- Date Issued:
- 2023-09-25
- Place:
- 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:
- 2023-10-17