|
Climate Change Database Clearinghouse: Flora
FEDERAL AGENCIES
Organization: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)
Contact: n/a
Email: Wetlands_Team@fws.gov
Web address: http://www.fws.gov/wetlands/
Database name: National Wetlands Inventory (NWI)
This data set represents the extent, approximate location and type of wetlands and deepwater habitats in the conterminous United States. These data delineate the areal extent of wetlands and surface waters as defined by Cowardin et al. (1979).
Certain wetland habitats are excluded from the National mapping program because of the limitations of aerial imagery as the primary data source used to detect wetlands. These habitats include seagrasses or submerged aquatic vegetation that are found in the intertidal and subtidal zones of estuaries and near shore coastal waters. Some deepwater reef communities (coral or tuberficid worm reefs) have also been excluded from the inventory. These habitats, because of their depth, go undetected by aerial imagery.
By policy, the Service also excludes certain types of "farmed wetlands" as may be defined by the Food Security Act or that do not coincide with the Cowardin et al. definition. Contact the Service's Regional Wetland Coordinator for additional information on what types of farmed wetlands are included on wetland maps.
The present goal of the Service is to provide the citizens of the United States and its Trust Territories with current geospatially referenced information on the status, extent, characteristics and functions of wetlands, riparian, deepwater and related aquatic habitats in priority areas to promote the understanding and conservation of these resources.
Organization: United States Forest Service (USFS)
Contact: Anantha Prasad
Email: aprasad@fs.fed.us
Web address: http://www.nrs.fs.fed.us/atlas/
Database name: Climate Change Tree Atlas
Description: As the reality of global climate change becomes increasingly apparent to the public and to many policymakers, scientists are being called on to provide information about possible outcomes. Dr. Louis Iverson and Anantha Prasad began modeling and mapping tree species from the eastern United States for their potential response to several scenarios of climate change around 1996. Their first climate change atlases for trees and birds examined 80 tree species. Then they joined with Stephen Matthews and Raymond O'Connor (now deceased) to produce a change atlas for 150 bird species. Now, along with Matthew Peters, they have expanded their tree analysis to 134 species at 20 km resolution, using more accurate modeling tools and newer climate models (GCMs).
The current status and potential future status following climate change of 134 tree species in the eastern United States was assessed. US Forest Service inventory data was used with 38 environmental variables to generate models of current suitable habitat for each species. The authors then change the climate according to three climate models (HADCM3, PCM & GFDL) and two emissions scenarios (A1FI (Hi) = little conservation efforts to mitigate CO2 emissions, B1 (Lo) =significant conservation effort), and model the potential future species habitats.
Organization: United States Geological Survey (USGS)
Contact: Robert Thompson
Email: rthompson@usgs.gov
Web address: http://esp.cr.usgs.gov/data/atlas/little/
Database name: Digital representations of Tree Species Range maps
Description: Maps of the ranges of tree species in North America compiled by Elbert Little, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, and others were digitized for use in USGS' vegetation-climate modeling studies. These digital map files are available for download. The maps are available in ArcView® shapefile format. Geographic ranges are represented as polygons. There is one shapefile (with associated data files) for each tree species.
OTHER ORGANIZATIONS
Organization: Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS)
Contact: n/a
Email: n/a
Web address: http://web.vims.edu/bio/sav/gis_data.html
Database name: Submerged Aquatic Vegetation (SAV)
Description: Chesapeake Bay SAV data were mapped from aerial photography, primarily at a scale of 1:24,000, for the following regions: western shore, Va. only - 1971 & 1974; lower Bay, Va. only - 1980 & 1981; upper Bay, selected sections, 1979; Baywide, 1978, 1984 - 1987, and 1989 - 2007. Each area of SAV was classified into one of four density classes by the percentage of cover as determined from the aerial photography (methodology is described in each annual report - e.g. see Orth et al., 2008). The SAV beds are stored as ArcInfo GIS coverages using the quality control procedures documented in the individual metadata files. Data were collected by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and can be attributed by including a reference to the associated annual SAV distribution and abundance report. |
