These are preliminary vegetative cover surveys for the Nebraska collected for the purpose of developing a land cover map. These data were collected by Nebraska Game and Parks Commission in coordination with the Missouri Resource Assessment Partnership (MoRAP). The overall vegetation community was recorded in addition to the dominant 3 species and percent cover of these vegetative communities: herbaceous, shrub, and woody. A photo was taken of each survey location and attached to the record.
Resources
LCCs have produced a wealth of informational documents, reports, fact sheets, webinars and more to help support resource managers in designing and delivering conservation at landscape scales.
Ecological integrity of priority habitats was based on degree of local human development, amount and local connectivity of habitat, and quality of habit. Indicators were selected to reflect the needs of focal species, as well as other key ecological attributes of these habitats. Ecological integrity was estimated for floodplain forests, freshwater wetlands, human development, major rivers, rice agriculture, tallgrass prairie, and tidal wetlands.
Date posted: April 2, 2019
Prioritization for maintenance of intact habitat (i.e., habitat quality rating of Good or Very Good), based on local scale ecological integrity, degree of threats faced, potential conservation opportunities, and conservation value of surrounding landscape. In contrast to ecological integrity ratings; threat, opportunity and landscape rankings are largely based on the range of values of any given indicator across the geography, sorted by quantile. There are some exceptions, particularly for indicators used to develop threat rankings (e.g., urban development risk).
Date posted: April 2, 2019
Prioritization for protection of habitat (via acquisition or easements), based on local scale ecological integrity, degree of threats faced, potential conservation opportunities, and conservation value of surrounding landscape. In contrast to ecological integrity ratings; threat, opportunity and landscape rankings are largely based on the range of values of any given indicator across the geography, sorted by quantile. There are some exceptions, particularly for indicators used to develop threat rankings (e.g., urban development risk).
Date posted: April 2, 2019
This geodatabase contains inputs used in creating the Edwards to the Gulf Conservation Blueprint. These datasets include county boundaries, HUC12 watersheds, project boundary, open water extent, protected areas, and shallow water oyster reefs.
Date posted: April 2, 2019
We developed multi-scale habitat suitability models for black-tailed prairie dogs (BTPD) in the southwestern Great Plains, corresponding to the western region of the Great Plains LCC. We used long-term (10-yr), high-resolution datasets on BTPD colony boundary locations collected at 7 study areas distributed across the region to develop resource selection functions based on colony locations and expansion patterns.
Date posted: April 2, 2019
The Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions (IMBCR) program is one of the largest breeding bird monitoring programs in North America. The program was developed in 2007 to address the need for a collaborative avian monitoring program that produces scientifically defensible estimates of bird distribution and abundance across various spatial scales. The program’s objectives were established following guidelines published by the North American Bird Conservation Initiative’s (NABCI) Monitoring Subcommittee for improving avian monitoring in North America.
Date posted: March 30, 2019
The decrease in the number of monarch butterflies in eastern populations of the United States has led to a Species Status Assessment by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. This project sought to increase the sampling of milkweed within Texas, through which the eastern population travels during its northern and southern migrations. The goals of this project were 1) to complete milkweed (and monarch egg and larvae) surveys, 2) coordinate with other agencies working on efforts regarding monarch butterflies, and 3) to train students.
Date posted: March 30, 2019
Advancement in Geographical Information System (GIS) data development, management, and analysis has allowed conservation practitioners to apply ecological theory into conservation delivery at broad landscape scales. This project demonstrated that process with the creation of Decision Support Tools (DST) to guide on-the-ground habitat delivery to those areas on the landscape that, if managed, will provide the greatest biological return for the conservation dollar invested. This project focused on the habitat needs of Sandhill cranes and waterfowl, as a guild, during spring migration.
Date posted: March 30, 2019
The Integrated Monitoring in Bird Conservation Regions (IMBCR) program is one of the largest breeding bird monitoring programs in North America. The program was developed in 2007 to address the need for a collaborative avian monitoring program that produces scientifically defensible estimates of bird distribution and abundance across various spatial scales. The program’s objectives were established following guidelines published by the North American Bird Conservation Initiative’s (NABCI) Monitoring Subcommittee for improving avian monitoring in North America.
Date posted: March 30, 2019
Priority and use segments for waterfowl (ducks and geese). Segments designated as use areas were utilized during annual spring surveys 2014-2016. The reduced model for ducks indicated a relationship between total area of grass habitats, open water, crops, and wetlands, as well as mean distance to roads.
Date posted: March 30, 2019
This dataset represents results from this study attributed to the NHDPlus V2 catchments. Changes in climate occurring throughout the Mississippi River Basin are expected to lead to additional impacts in stream habitats and fish assemblages in multiple ways, including changing changing thermal properties and flow regimes. To manage streams for current impacts and future changes, managers need region-wide information for decision-making and developing proactive management strategies.
Date posted: March 30, 2019
Across the western Great Plains of North America, groundwater pumping for irrigated agriculture has depleted regional aquifers that sustain stream flow for native fishes. Although declines in Great Plains stream discharge owing to groundwater pumping are widely documented, spatial and temporal patterns in stream intermittency across this broad landscape have yet to be quantified.
Date posted: March 30, 2019
Aerial surveys with locations, habitat type, and count estimates for Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis) and waterfowl. Waterfowl were distinguished between ducks, dark geese, and light geese. Habitat types described include: main channel, side channel, pond or wetland, and field adjacent to river, pond, or wetland. Crane and waterfowl habitat use was collected on the North and South Platte Rivers from the confluence of the North and South Platte River near North Platte, Nebraska to the Nebraska state line.
Date posted: March 30, 2019
Summary of project, results, and discussion for the study completed by Mark W. Bowen and William C. Johnson. Summary written by the Great Plains Landscape Conservation Cooperative (GP LCC).
Date posted: March 30, 2019
Holocene environmental change is poorly characterized throughout much of the High Plains. Playa wetlands are sites with appreciable potential for reconstructing environmental change because of their environmental sensitivity. Radiocarbon, litho- and magneto-stratigraphic, and stable carbon isotope (δ13C) data for four playas on the Kansas High Plains indicate significant change occurred throughout the Holocene, which had profound impacts on playa ecosystem functions (e.g. groundwater recharge, surface water storage, and habitat).
Date posted: March 30, 2019
Priority and use segments for Sandhill Cranes (*Antigone canadensis*). Segments designated as use areas were utilized during annual spring surveys 2014-2016. Priority areas were determined using statistical modeling. The reduced model that best predicted use by Sandhill cranes included total area of trees, pits, crops and unvegetated sandbar habitats in each segments. Mean distance to conservation lands and roads and minimum distance to transmission lines and towers were also included in the model. Only distance to lines and total tree area had a significant (p
Date posted: March 30, 2019
Strategic conservation planning for broad, multi-species landscapes benefits from a data-driven approach that emphasizes persistence of all priority species’ populations and utilized landscapes, while simultaneously accounting for human uses. This study presents such an assessment for priority fishes of the Great Plains of the United States. Species distribution models for 28 priority fish species were created and incorporated into a prioritization framework using the open source software Zonation, accounting for species-specific connectivity needs and current fish habitat condition.
Date posted: March 29, 2019
The potential implications of climate change to fishes in Great Plains rivers and streams could range from drastic shifts in distribution to extirpation. Many lotic systems in the Great Plains are not well suited for direct escape routes for fish to move to more suitable habitats at other latitudes due to the west-east direction of flows rather than north-south. Therefore, we might expect additional climate related stress on fish communities in the Great Plains compared to other regions of North America.
Date posted: March 29, 2019
Playa lakes are critically important features of the landscape across much of the American Great Plains, providing the vast majority of the water recharge of the Ogallala Aquifer, tremendous wildlife benefits, and a host of utilitarian, recreational and aesthetic benefits to landowners and society at large. However, playas and their associated benefits are currently threatened by land use management decisions. It is critical to understand the behavioral drivers for both playa conservation and utilization.
Date posted: March 29, 2019
Intrafragment ecology is little studied for imperiled riverine fishes although river fragmentation and habitat loss increasingly threaten sensitive species. A long-term population-monitoring program in the Pecos River, New Mexico, provided detailed data for 15 annual cohorts of speckled chub (Macrhybopsis aestivalis), which were used to assess intrafragment patterns in recruitment and year-class strength in relation to distributional patterns, flow-regime characteristics, and air temperature. Cohorts avoided a degraded upstream reach.
Date posted: March 29, 2019
Conceptually, we overlaid down-scaled Global Climate Model data to assess climatic conditions with fish species thermal tolerance data and potential barrier to movement data to predict future fish species distributions and/or identify species that may be vulnerable to climate projections. These species distribution data, of 13 fish species at 3 different time frames, were constructed from species distribution models containing only current, projected 2050, and projected 2099 air temperature (obtained from The Nature Conservancy Climate Wizard tool) and average United States Geological Surv
Date posted: March 29, 2019
Redacted transcripts of open-ended focus groups discussions and follow-on questioning intended to reveal the key socioeconomic realities and hurdles that discourage landowners from enrolling in conservation programs or restoring playas. Focus groups were conducted in areas with large playa clusters as identified by PLJV’s science-based Playa Decision Support System.
Date posted: March 29, 2019
With extraordinary resolution and accuracy, Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR)-derived digital elevation models (DEMs) have been increasingly used for watershed analyses and modeling by hydrologists, planners and engineers. Such high-accuracy DEMs have demonstrated their effectiveness in delineating watershed and drainage patterns at fine scales in low-relief terrains. However, these high-resolution datasets are usually only available as topographic DEMs rather than hydrologic DEMs, presenting greater land roughness that can affect natural flow accumulation.
Date posted: March 29, 2019
Inundation is a critical parameter of wetland hydrologic performance. This study uses Annual Habitat Survey data from 2004 to 2012 in the Rainwater Basin in south-central Nebraska to examine differences between the actual inundation conditions and three datasets: the National Wetland Inventory (NWI), the Soil Survey Geographic database (SSURGO), and LiDAR-derived depressions. The results show that current wetland inundated areas were well overlaid with these datasets (99.9% in SSURGO data, 67.9% in NWI data, and 87.3;% in LiDAR-derived depressions).
Date posted: March 29, 2019
The Arkansas River Shiner (ARS), *Notropis girardi*, is a federally threatened minnow that now occurs natively in modest numbers only in the South Canadian River, following decades of range contraction and population losses. The remaining populations are at increasing risk as global change is expected to impact the upper and middle South Canadian River with a rise in temperature as much as 4-6 F and a decrease in precipitation from 10 to 35 % in this century.
Date posted: March 29, 2019
Sediment accumulation in playa wetlands, such as those in the Rainwater Basin in south-central Nebraska, reduces the hydrologic functionality and alters the vegetative composition of the wetlands reducing their ability to provide forage and resting habitat for migratory birds. Most Rainwater Basin wetlands have intense agricultural production occuring within their watersheds that accelerate sediment accumulation within the wetland. This sediment accumulation reduced the abilty of the wetland to hold water which, in turn, allows invasive and upland plants to proliferate with the wetland fo
Date posted: March 29, 2019
Maps depicting the soil erosion potential modeled for Rainwater Basin Wetland Watersheds using the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation 2.
Date posted: March 29, 2019
This data is the Missouri River Basin subset of the National Anthropogenic Barrier Dataset (NABD) 2012 developed by USGS additional gauge data may exist in this dataset. Please refer to the complete dataset for use in other projects. A copy can be found at:
https://www.sciencebase.gov/catalog/item/56a7f9dce4b0b28f1184dabd
Date posted: March 29, 2019
Maps depicting the LiDAR derived watersheds, flowlines, and drainages with comparison to previously known watershed extents.
Date posted: March 29, 2019
On a global scale biodiversity within river networks is threatened by interactions between habitat fragmentation and altered hydrologic regimes. In the Great Plains of North America, stream networks are fragmented by >19,000 anthropogenic barriers and flow regimes are altered by surface water retention and groundwater extraction.
Date posted: March 29, 2019
ESRI file geodatabase containing LiDAR derived watershed boundaries for Rainwater Basin Wetalnds.
Date posted: March 29, 2019
We used comparative landscape genetics to examine the relative roles of historical events, intrinsic traits and landscape factors in determining the distribution of genetic diversity of river fishes across the North American Great Plains. Spatial patterns of diversity were overlaid on a patch-based graphical model and then compared within and among three species that co-occurred across five Great Plains watersheds. Species differing in reproductive strategy (benthic vs.
Date posted: March 29, 2019
Biodiversity in stream networks is threatened globally by interactions between habitat fragmentation and altered hydrologic regimes. In the Great Plains of North America, stream networks are fragmented by 19,000 anthropogenic barriers, and flow regimes are altered by surface water retention and groundwater extraction. We documented the distribution of anthropogenic barriers and dry stream segments in five basins covering the central Great Plains to assess effects of broad-scale environmental change on stream fish community structure and distribution of reproductive guilds.
Date posted: March 29, 2019
The range-wide plan (RWP) has been developed in response to concerns about lesser prairie-chicken (LPC) habitat threats which may be impacting LPC populations, and the proposed listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Along with the existing conservation efforts already being implemented, as described in the RWP, the supporting WAFWA Conservation Agreement (WCA) represents another mechanism to implement conservation to benefit LPC. The WCP represents an opportunity to enroll participants who agree to avoid, minimize and mitigate actions which may be detrimental to LPC.
Date posted: March 29, 2019
Collections of fishes used for data analyses in the project:
Historic and Current Habitat Use by Arkansas River Shiner in the South Canadian River in Central Oklahoma as Affected by River Flow: Predictions for Habitat Under Future Climate Scenarios". Edie Marsh-Matthews and William J. Matthews. Funded and published by the Great Plains Landscape Conservation Cooperative.
Date posted: March 29, 2019
We developed multi-scale habitat suitability models for black-tailed prairie dogs (BTPD) in the southwestern Great Plains, corresponding to the western region of the Great Plains LCC. We used long-term (10-yr), high-resolution datasets on BTPD colony boundary locations collected at 7 study areas distributed across the region to develop resource selection functions based on colony locations and expansion patterns.
Date posted: March 29, 2019
We flew aerial line transect surveys between March 30 and May 3, 2012, to estimate the abundance of lesser prairie-chickens (Tympanuchus pallidicinctus) and lesser prairie-chicken leks in four habitat regions in the Great Plains U.S. Estimates were supplemented with data from surveys conducted by Texas Tech University in two regions in the Texas Panhandle and surveys conducted by the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation in Oklahoma.
Date posted: March 29, 2019
Stream fragmentation alters the structure of aquatic communities on a global scale, generally through loss of native species. Among riverscapes in the Great Plains of North America, stream fragmentation and hydrologic alteration (flow regulation and dewatering) are implicated in the decline of native fish diversity. This study documents the spatio–temporal distribution of fish reproductive guilds in the fragmented Arkansas and Ninnescah rivers of south-central Kansas using retrospective analyses involving 63 years of fish community data.
Date posted: March 29, 2019
Rate of global biodiversity loss increased significantly during the 20th century associated with human environmental alterations. Specifically, mismanagement of freshwater resources contributed to historical and contemporary loss of stream-dwelling fish diversity and will likely play a role in determining the persistence of species in the future. We present a mechanistic pathway by which human alteration of streams has caused the decline of a unique reproductive guild of Great Plains stream-dwelling fishes, and suggest how future climate change might exacerbate these declines.
Date posted: March 26, 2019
The basic task of inventorying biodiversity has actually been under way for many years. Existing natural history museum collections, like those in which we work, can provide major contributions to such inventories in the form of valuable historic organism occurrence records, and their specimens can be used in many ways for basic research and applied conservation planning. Unfortunately, much of the wealth of information stored in natural history collections requires substantial investment to be made accessible and useful to natural resource managers and researchers.
Date posted: March 26, 2019
The aquifer saturated thickness product is a per-pixel (250 square-meters) model representation of the combined fluid and soil matrix volume of water available in a given area, represented in units of linear feet. The prediction of available water is made using a network of over 9,300 monitoring wells located throughout the High Plains aquifer region.
Date posted: March 23, 2019
Habitat hotspots were mapped for migratory birds ‘guilds’ across the LCD region using species presence/absence data collected from citizen-science datasets and modelled habitat conditions from the LANDFIRE program (Rollins, 2009).
Date posted: March 23, 2019
To estimate wetland DEDs available in the future (2040) we used data from Bartuszevige et al. 2016 which estimates changes in playa functionality as a result of sedimentation, potential wind development, and tillage. Playas estimated to be impacted by these drivers were eliminated from the wetland landcover map and the process of calculating duck energy days described above was repeated.
Date posted: March 23, 2019
These data represent areas defined as large block grasslands according to a model developed by PLJV (McLachlan 2008). The model is based on literature derived Lesser Prairie-Chicken habitat preferences and considers habitat composition within a 2,000 ha area. Any pixel with more than 58% grass, less than 36% cropland, less than 2% woodland/ shrubland, less than 5 % secondary roads, and no 4 lane roads within a 2,000 ha surrounding area is counted as a large block grassland pixel.
Date posted: March 23, 2019
These data represent the long term average (27 year) amount of crane energy days (CED) available in wetlands. CEDs were calculated in the same way as wetland duck energy days describe above except that different habit energy density values were used. Based on the PLJV waterbird plan (2008) Appendix A, we estimated wetland CED density values for wetland habitats by dividing energetic carrying capacities for waterfowl by 3.37 to reflect the difference in mean body mass between mallards and sandhill cranes.
Date posted: March 23, 2019
These data represent the long term average (27 year) amount of duck energy days available in wetlands. Data were produced as part of the PLJV waterfowl implementation plan. We used data from recently completed studies investigating food resource availability in a variety of wetland types in the PLJV. Beheny (2017) completed a study of food energy availability in five different wetland types in northeastern Colorado. Clark (2016) investigated food resource availability in stock ponds in BCR 19 in Texas.
Date posted: March 23, 2019
These data represent the average annual depletion rate of the Ogallala aquifer from 1980 to 2009. These data were calculated by averaging spatially explicit 5 year depletion rates reported in McGuire et al. 2012.
Date posted: March 23, 2019
The tillage suitability product is a per-crop, per-pixel (30 square-meters) model representation of the predicted probability (0.00-1.00) that an area can support commodity crop development for a suite of crop types commonly grown in the LCD landscape. The values for each grid cell are interpreted as a probability, with any value greater-than 0.50 suggesting an area should be suitable for crop development based on observations of thousands of farmed areas around the LCD.
Date posted: March 23, 2019
The wind energy development suitability product is a per-pixel (30 square-meters) model representation of the predicted probability (0.00-1.00) that an area can support wind energy development. The result is represented as a percentage, such that any value greater-than 0.5 would be classified as suitable for wind energy development in model space. To model suitability for wind energy development, we used 9,399 observations of ‘windmills’ taken from the FAA Digital Obstruction File (http://bit.ly/dof_12549; accessed June, 2016).
Date posted: March 23, 2019