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Classification and Mapping of Cave and Karst Resources
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Cave and karst systems are unique environments that occur throughout the Appalachians. They provide habitat for a diverse array of species and are an important source of domestic water supply for Appalachian communities. However, a lack of classification and mapping information on these ecosystems creates a significant barrier to conservation. In order to develop and deliver landscape-level planning tools, it is essential to develop an Appalachian-wide map depicting where cave and karst habitats and resources occur across the landscape. Researchers from an array of organizations were funded by the LCC to develop a series of deliverables, including data tables, geospatial information layers, and maps on these ecosystems.
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Assessing Vulnerability of Species and Habitats to Large-scale Impacts
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New vulnerability assessments for 41 species and 3 habitats in the Appalachians are now available. The conservation community can view and search each of these assessments by vulnerability scores, conservation status ranks, state and subregion of assessment, and higher taxonomy. In addition, principle investigators NatureServe compiled the results of 700 species assessments previously completed by other researchers as well as assessments on several habitats.
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Stream Impacts from Water Withdrawals in the Marcellus Shale Region
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The Appalachian LCC provided a grant to Cornell University Environmental Engineers to study how the region’s surface freshwater supply – and the health of natural systems delivering this resource – have been impacted and may be altered in the coming years under increasing water withdrawals.
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Environmental Flows from Water Withdrawals in the Marcellus Shale Region
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The Appalachian LCC collaborated with Cornell University to study the environmental impacts of water withdrawals in the Central Appalachian region. The rivers and streams of the Central Appalachians are home to more than 200 species of fish and other aquatic life. They also provide a reliable source of drinking water, recreational opportunities and associated economic benefits to people living in large cities and surrounding communities. This research looks at how the region’s surface freshwater supply – and the health of natural systems delivering this resource – have been impacted and may be altered in the coming years under increasing water withdrawals. It focuses on the Marcellus Shale region in the Central Appalachians, including portions of NY, PA, OH, MD, WV and VA.
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Species and Habitat Vulnerability Assessments of Appalachian Species and Habitats
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Future climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies will be dependent on the best available projections of how the regional climate will change and on estimates of the impacts those changes will have on the region’s natural and cultural resources. Thus understanding the vulnerability of various species and habitats within the Appalachian LCC to climate change is of critical importance.
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Species and Habitat Vulnerability Assessments of Appalachian Species and Habitats
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Future climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies will be dependent on the best available projections of how the regional climate will change and the impacts those changes will have on the region’s natural and cultural resources. Understanding the vulnerability of various species and habitats to climate change within the Appalachian LCC is of critical importance for making effective conservation decisions. The AppLCC funded a Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment research project that addresses several factors: 1) how the Cooperative should acquire information about the climate vulnerability of Appalachian species and habitats to develop vulnerability assessments for a suite of key species and habitats to share with partners; 2) compilation of known vulnerability assessments of species and habitats, and 3) new climate change vulnerability assessments of selected species and habitats in the AppLCC region.
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Alternatives for Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment Report to the Appalachian LCC
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How should the Appalachian LCC acquire information about the vulnerability of Appalachian species and habitats to climate change to share with its partners? This report summarizes the findings and recommendations of a seven-member Expert Panel that sought to answer this question identified as a major research priority. The Panel addressed three aspects of the question: the selection of species and habitats to assess, approaches to vulnerability assessment, and the availability of downscaled climate data.
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Species and Habitat Vulnerability Assessments of Appalachian Species and Habitats
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Data Needs Assessment
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The Data Needs Assessment research project was undertaken to review the variety of resources on conservation planning to provide packages of products, data, and identified data gaps to improve conservation planning in the Appalachian LCC. A suite of core conservation planning products and data from principal investigators at Clemson University are now available to the Cooperative.
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Appalachian LCC Data Needs Assessment Final Report
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This project was undertaken to evaluate existing datasets for the Appalachian LCC region, package relevant datasets, review of some of the most commonly used conservation planning tools, provide interpretive text and graphics for datasets and tools, and identify data gaps that could improve conservation planning in the Appalachian LCC. Additionally, we reviewed and analyzed State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAP) from 15 states that intersect with the LCC, and corresponded with the SWAP coordinators to get their input on summaries and information on the upcoming 2015 revisions.
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Appalachain Landscape Conservation Cooperative GIS Datasets
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The Appalachain Landscape Conservation Cooperative Datasets are located in a folder named “AppLCC_USGS_ConicEA_Projection” and each theme has its own folder. Most folders have a layer file for displaying the raster datasets, however if there is more than one raster in the folder, it may be necessary to point the layer to the desired raster each time it is loaded. Also there are a few layer files and one geodataset (NWI) that will only work in ArcGIS 10.x. The layer file with the same name as the raster dataset should work in both ArcGIS 9.x and 10.x. In each case we attempted to download the latest (Spring 2013) revision of the dataset that completely covered the Appalachain LCC.
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