Methods for Assessment of Species Richness and Occupancy across Space, Time, Taxonomic Groups, and Ecoregions
RC-2202
Objective
Measures of species richness, or the number of native species in a given location, are used widely to inform management planning and action at multiple spatial and temporal scales. Species richness also is a popular metric for projecting the effects of natural and human-caused environmental change. Data on species richness alone may not provide insights to probabilities of species persistence. However, species richness can be represented as the cumulative probability of occupancy, or probability of occupying a given location, of many individual species. Occupancy can serve as a surrogate measure of a species' abundance. Abundance and range size, in turn, are strongly related to probability of persistence. Maximizing the probability of species persistence typically is a high priority for federal and state managers of natural resources.
The objective of this project is to develop and validate practical, statistically rigorous, and transferable methods to estimate species richness and occupancy across space and time. These methods will make it feasible to estimate a species' pattern of occupancy across tens to tens of thousands of square kilometers (the size of many Department of Defense installations and administrative units of other public-land management agencies), detect changes in its distribution, and make inference to its probability of regional persistence currently and for given alternative scenarios of environmental change.
Technical Approach
To maximize transferability of the results among species and regions, this project will use existing and newly collected data on birds and butterflies in the Great Basin and birds, butterflies, and frogs in the Chesapeake Bay Lowlands. Researchers will examine how best to correct for sampling effort when estimating species richness and evaluate whether short-term measures of species richness and composition accurately reflect longer-term patterns. They will test whether it is efficient and accurate to estimate species richness on the basis of the occurrence patterns of a small group of species. Additionally, they will quantify, at multiple spatial scales, the extent to which vegetation composition and structure measured in the field, geophysical attributes, or remotely sensed metrics of land cover and vegetation explain and predict variation in occupancy of birds, butterflies, and frogs. The team will work collaboratively with end users in the Great Basin and Chesapeake Bay Lowlands to develop spatially explicit alternative scenarios of environmental change across extensive areas that are applicable to ongoing challenges, decision making processes, and practices for managing natural resources sustainably.
Benefits
This work will enable resource managers to project future occupancy, thus species richness, given changes in environmental variables that are strongly associated with species distributions and that may be possible to affect through management actions. End users will be engaged in graphically illustrating their understanding of connections between management targets and diverse environmental attributes, as well as how feasible actions may shape those attributes. Collaboration among end users and researchers can increase the quantity, quality, and availability of scientific information that is relevant to decision making. The methods developed will be statistically rigorous and transferable in space, in time, and among taxonomic groups. (Anticipated Project Completion - 2016)
Symposium & Workshop
FY 2013 New Start Project Selections
Points of Contact
Principal Investigator
Dr. Erica Fleishman
University of California, Davis
Phone: 530-754-9167
Program Manager
Resource Conservation and Climate Change
SERDP and ESTCP
Document Types
- Fact Sheet - Brief project summary with links to related documents and points of contact.
- Final Report - Comprehensive report for every completed SERDP and ESTCP project that contains all technical results.
- Cost & Performance Report - Overview of ESTCP demonstration activities, results, and conclusions, standardized to facilitate implementation decisions.
- Technical Report - Additional interim reports, laboratory reports, demonstration reports, and technology survey reports.
- Guidance - Instructional information on technical topics such as protocols and user’s guides.
- Workshop Report - Summary of workshop discussion and findings.
- Multimedia - On demand videos, animations, and webcasts highlighting featured initiatives or technologies.
- Model/Software - Computer programs and applications available for download.
- Database - Digitally organized collection of data available to search and access.