GIS II Final Project: GIS Application in Conservation Biology

Goals and Objectives

The basis of this study is to understand more about the distribution and habitat of the Oregon spotted frog in order to find areas to protect this species while taking outside factors into account. I chose this study in order to provide an example of GIS application in conservation biology. Using the GIS data to examine where the species are found and what the nearest threats to their habitats are will allow for new protection plans to be developed.

Background

The Oregon Spotted frog is found only in the Northwestern United States and Canada, in lentic freshwater habitats and wetlands (McAllister & Leonard 1997). The species’ habitat is threatened by residential development, dam construction, and grazing by other animals. Habitat degradation is the greatest threat to this species and data shows how drastically the range of the Oregon spotted frog has decreased over the years (McAllister & Leonard 1997). Other threats include introduced fish predators and bullfrogs. It is currently listed on the IUCN red list as Vulnerable, and it is a candidate for listing in the US Endangered Species Act (The IUCN Red List of Endangered Species). There are no major conservation actions being taken to protect this species, however the US Fish and Wildlife service has a Sensitive Species policy which requires the agency to maintain and preserve the populations of all native species in habitats on National Forest lands (Cushman & Pearl 2007).

Methods

Project all feature classes to NAD 1983, because that is the GCS that the California Oregon Spotted Frog data was projected in and this makes it easier

Create study area of these 4 counties: Siskiyou county, Modoc county, Shasta county, and Lassen county because these are the four counties in which the Oregon Spotted Frog has been recorded. Select by attributes to select the 4 counties, create layer from selection. Rename it Study Area

Convert raster to polygon feature based on the LIFE_FORM field, which defines the type of life form the frog is found on in that area. Categories are: Conifer, Hardwood, Herbaceous, Shrub, and Water. This information is useful because it shows what type of life forms the frogs prefer and therefore the most important ones to protect.

Calculate statistics on Shape_Area Sum to discover the top three Results: the frog appears to prefer conifer, herbaceous plants, and water the most.

Clip major roads from Usa data from UWEC geog dept. to the study area.

Clip CA_Lakes feature class to study area

Buffer 0.5 miles around roads due to future construction highly likely in those areas, therefore it is not realistic to restrict construction in these areas. Use ModelBuilder to execute this tool.
Buffer 1, 3, and 5 miles around the range for potential protection areas
Use edit tools to reshape the 5 mile buffer area to avoid roads

Results

Figure 1. Top left image shows range map of the OSF in the study area of the four counties in N. California. Top right shows the types of life forms that the frogs were found on or near, Bottom left shows added lakes and roads, and bottom right shows the added 1, 3, and 5 mile buffers.

Figure 2. Resulting map image with green areas representing potential OSF reserves

I settled on just reshaping the 5-mile range buffer to avoid the major roads. This is definitely not what a professional would have done because this project truly requires far more research, but this is a nice start to showing how GIS is generally used in conservation biology

Conclusions
Throughout this project I learned that these things really take an immense amount of planning. Model Builder was very helpful for the tedious tools that I had to apply multiple times. I also learned that finding areas for environmental protection is a lot more complicated and involves many factors beyond the ones that I explored in this study. Opportunity for further analysis could include residential developments as well as commercial development. Further analysis of habitat and microclimate could also be considered. I gained some experience of using GIS for biological application and now understand how much more complex these projects are.

Sources
Cushman, Kathleen A, and Christopher A Pearl. “A Conservation Assessment for...” USDI Bureau of Land Management, Mar. 2007.

Drapera, D. A.-G. Application of GIS in plant conservation programmes in Portugal. Biological Conservation. 2003. 

McAllister, Kelly R, and William P Leonard. “Oregon Spotted Frog.” Washington State Status Report. Wash. Dept. Fish and Wild., Olympia. July 1997.

Shah, Anup. “Why Is Biodiversity Important? Who Cares?.” Global Issues. 19 Jan. 2014. Web. 29 Oct. 2017.

“Species Profile for Oregon Spotted Frog (Rana Pretiosa).” Environmental Conservation Online System, US Fish and Wildlife Service.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Version 2017-2

Datasets acquired from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife geoportal and ArcGIS online.