Setting conservation priorities using the GAP's online decision support tool

Alexa McKerrow

The Southeastern Regional Gap Analysis Project has developed three key datasets for a ninestate area (AL, FL, GA, KY, MS, NC, SC, TN and VA). These data include maps of detailed land cover (vegetative communities), vertebrate species models, and land management stewardship. In this poster we demonstrate the use of these data in conservation planning case studies and introduce an online decision support tool (accessible at http://www5.basic.ncsu.edu/) that allows the end user to select an area of interest and to quantify the level of protection for individual vertebrate species, species assemblages, and/or vegetative communities. One case study is from a collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and shows how carbon sequestration management actions could be targeted to more efficiently provide habitat for Partner’s in Flight priority species. Another case study shows how a land trust might use the decision support tool to identify species and vegetative communities that are under-represented in the existing conservation network of their focus area. While our case studies are specific to the Southeastern US, the decision support tool currently provides analysis of data from the Southwestern US and Puerto Rico Gap Analysis Projects, and will soon offer analyses of data from the Northwestern US as well.

Keywords: GAP ANALYSIS, DECISION SUPPORT, VEGETATION MAP, PROTECTED LANDS