Potential Whooping Crane Carrying Capacity (2100, with development) [U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service]
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Open Data Full Details
Full Details
- Title
- Potential Whooping Crane Carrying Capacity (2100, with development) [U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service]
- Description
- The only self-sustaining population of endangered whooping cranes (Grus americana) requires a network of conservation lands for wintering along the Texas Gulf Coast (USA), so that this increasing population can reach downlisting under the Endangered Species Act (1000 birds). We identify locations providing the highest quality and most sustainable wintering habitat for these whooping cranes through 2100 by predicting future habitats under a sea level rise projection of 1.0m by 2100, while incorporating a scenario of future urban development. This method combines predictions of future habitat quality with current whooping crane density estimates to calculate the potential carrying capacity of whooping cranes for each 10 m pixel within this 17,725 km2area. We found whooping cranes used locations with salt marsh at twice the rate of places lacking marsh. Areas > 15 km from development or < 2 km from estuarine water had increased crane use. Predicted area of salt marsh habitat oscillated across time given different rates of sea level rise.By anticipating climate-induced habitat loss with species population expansion we provide the requisite spatial information for conservation planners to build a sustainable conservation estate for downlisting whooping cranes. By coupling wildlife biology with conservation planning and on-the-ground implementation, our work exemplifies a proactive approach to recover endangered species.Whooping crane potential carrying capacity was developed by combining density estimates from an independent data set with our model of current crane habitat suitability. This model incorporated projected land use effects such as future urban or suburban development, agricultural conversion or intensification, and, loss or gain of habitats due to sea level rise and other climate changes using data from Sea Level Affecting Marshes Model (SLAMM) and remote sensing elevation data and information on land cover and land use to model future conditions of priority habitats under several sea-level rise scenarios.To learn more about this dataset and how it was generated, please refer toMetzger et al (2020). This model output data are also available inServCat. This is a tiled feature service of potential carrying capacity of Whooping Cranes for the year 2100, and utilized in theTexas Coastal Bend Landscape Conservation Design data viewer. For more information about the Texas Coastal Bend Landscape Conservation Design, please see theproject page in ServCat.
- Creator
- Department of the Interior
- Publisher
- U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Open Data
- Temporal Coverage
- Last modified 2022-08-12
- Date Issued
- 2021-06-05
- Access Rights
- Public
- Format
- File
- Language
- English
- Date Added
- August 28, 2025
Location
Links
Cite and Reference
-
Citation
Department of the Interior (2021). Potential Whooping Crane Carrying Capacity (2100, with development) [U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service]. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Open Data. https://gis-fws.opendata.arcgis.com/maps/fws::potential-whooping-crane-carrying-capacity-2100-with-development (web service) -
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