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ForestERA - Pronghorn Habitat Suitability Metadata

Description

This is a 90m resolution raster dataset describing predicted Pronghorn Antelope habitat suitability across the western Mogollon Plateau in Arizona. It was created as part of the Forest Ecosystem Restoration Analysis (ForestERA) project to support landscape-scale forest restoration planning efforts by a broad group of stakeholders including federal and state agencies, academic institutions, and non-governmental entities.

Purpose

This layer was developed by the ForestERA project for use in landscape-level planning and prioritization of forest management on the western Mogollon Plateau. It was designed for multiple purposes, including prioritization of management actions and assessment of management effects on pronghorn populations.

Supplementary Information

The Pronghorn habitat suitability model was created using a set of simple rules based on literature review.

In Arizona, Pronghorn typically avoid areas of high slope (> 20%). We first created a map of suitable habitat using slope. As areas of slope < 10% have been identified as "preferred" habitat, we gave these areas a value of 1, areas between 10% and 20% slope were given a value of between 1 and 0 (1 - (slope - 10 / 10)), and areas with slope above 20% were given a value of zero.

Pronghorn also typically avoid areas of high woody vegetation cover . In Arizona, pronghorn frequently use areas with canopy cover 20% or less, and will use areas of higher cover when traveling between preferred rangelands. As with slope, we created a map of suitable habitat areas using canopy cover. Areas with canopy cover < 20% were given a value of 1, areas with cover between 20 and 60% were given a value between 1 and 0 (1 - (cover - 20 / 40)), and areas with cover > 60% were given a value of zero.

We combined the two habitat maps into the final habitat suitability map using another set of simple rules. First if either habitat map had a value of zero, the final map was given a value of zero. Otherwise the values for the two maps were added together and divided by two. Thus, the final habitat suitability map has a continuous range from zero to one, with higher values representing habitat that should be more suitable for pronghorn (lower cover and slope).

A limited accuracy assessment was undertaken using 435 pronghorn locations obtained from Rick Ockenfels of the Arizona Game and Fish Department. These data represent locations of radiocollared Pronghorn that were obtained using GPS triangulation from a flyover airplane. All of the locations come from west of I-17 and south of I-40, primarily in the Garland Prairie area. Of the 435 locations, 336 (77.2%) fall in areas with habitat suitability values of 0.9 or greater. An additional 72 locations (16.5%) fall in areas with values between 0.5 and 0.9. The remaining 47 values (6.3%) fall in areas with values of 0.5 or less.

These data are intended for regional analyses over spatial extents on the order of tens to hundreds of thousands of acres, and were not developed for use at finer spatial scales, although they may be useful for some applications at those finer scales.

Origin

Forest Ecosystem Restoration Analysis Project

Publication Date

February 1, 2004

File name and location

\\ENVSCI41\Shared\Metadata_Layers\NewGrids\Pronghorn\pronghab90m

Data type

Raster digital data

Data processing environment

Microsoft Windows 2000 Version 5.0 (Build 2195)
Service Pack 4; ESRI ArcCatalog 8.1.2.671

Size of the data

11.172 MB

Data transfer size

11.172 MB

Status

Complete

Data Update Frequency

None planned

Origin and ownership

This data layer was developed by the Forest Ecosystem Restoration Analysis (ForestERA) team in the Center for Environmental Sciences and Education at Northern Arizona University. Funding was provided by the Ecological Restoration Institute (ERI). The original data layer is considered the property of the ForestERA project and Northern Arizona University.

Access and use

This layer may be accessed by any interested party. It is provided by the Forest Ecosystem Restoration Analysis project, Arizona Game and Fish Department, the Ecological Restoration Institute (ERI), and Northern Arizona University (NAU). Reports, presentations, and publications in which this layer is presented or used for analytical purposes should acknowledge the ForestERA project.

Contents last updated

20040421 at time 14425800

Who completed this document

Forest Ecosystem Restoration Analysis Project
Center For Environmental Sciences and Education
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, Arizona 86011-5694
United States
928-523-0068 (voice)
928-523-7423 (fax)

Contact person

Dr. Thomas D. Sisk, Associate Professor
Center for Environmental Sciences and Education
PO Box 5694
Northern Arizona University
Flagstaff, AZ 86011-5694
telephone: 928-523-7183
fax: 928-523-7423
e-mail: Thomas.Sisk@nau.edu

Standards used to create this document

Standard name: FGDC Content Standards for Digital Geospatial Metadata
Standard version: FGDC-STD-001-1998
Time convention used in this document: local time

Metadata profiles defining additional information

ESRI Metadata Profile: http://www.esri.com/metadata/esriprof80.html
Horizontal coordinate system
Projected coordinate system name: NAD_1983_UTM_Zone_12N
Geographic coordinate system name: GCS_North_American_1983
Details
Grid Coordinate System Name: Universal Transverse Mercator
UTM Zone Number: 12
Transverse Mercator Projection
Scale Factor at Central Meridian: 0.999600
Longitude of Central Meridian: -111.000000
Latitude of Projection Origin: 0.000000
False Easting: 500000.000000
False Northing: 0.000000
Planar Coordinate Information
Planar Distance Units: meters
Coordinate Encoding Method: row and column
Coordinate Representation
Abscissa Resolution: 90.000000
Ordinate Resolution: 90.000000
Geodetic Model
Horizontal Datum Name: North American Datum of 1983
Ellipsoid Name: Geodetic Reference System 80
Semi-major Axis: 6378137.000000
Denominator of Flattening Ratio: 298.257222
_________________
Bounding coordinates
Horizontal
In decimal degrees
West: -113.044931
East: -109.878536
North: 35.587479
South: 34.107751
In projected or local coordinates
Left: 314687.387285
Right: 601607.387285
Top: 3938195.572581
Bottom: 3775925.572581
_________________
Spatial data description
Raster dataset information
Raster format: ESRI GRID
SDTS raster type: Grid Cell
Number of raster bands: 1
Raster properties
Origin location: Upper Left
Has pyramids: FALSE
Has colormap: FALSE
Data compression type: Default
Display type: matrix values
Cell information
Number of cells on x-axis: 3188
Number of cells on y-axis: 1803
Number of cells on z-axis: 1
Number of bits per cell: 32
Cell Size
X distance: 90.000000
Y distance: 90.000000
No detailed attribute information is available.

Last updated March 4, 2005