Mohave ground squirrel - Species Distribution Model, DRECP

May 1, 2013 (Last modified Jun 13, 2015)
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Description:
Habitat suitability model for the Mohave ground squirrel, Xerospermophilus mohavensi , conducted on behalf of the California Energy Commission by the United States Geological Survey, Western Research Ecological Center, Las Vegas Field Station as a project through the California Energy Commission (Contract reference: CEC Agreement 50010027). 

The USGS used statistical habitat models (MaxEnt, v3.3.3e) with observation data to describe current potential MGS habitat in the context of future utility-scale renewable energy development (USRED) in the Mojave Desert region.

Suitable habitat for Mohave ground squirrel under the medium development impact scenario (including anthropogenic and renewable energy influences) was categorized into a binary representation of suitable and unsuitable habitat (using the 5th percentile of habitat suitability scores, 0.438, as the threshold) for all cells with MGS occurrences.

The USGS model is based on 440 input localities and analysis was conducted at a scale of 1 km (raster cell size = 1000 m). Eight environmental variables, broadly representing climate (e.g. airtemperature, precipitation and climatic water deficit), land surface characteristics (e.g. topographic position and surface roughness) and the physical properties of the land surface (e.g. surface texture and albedo), were used in the modeling process.
For USGS model specifics, please refer to the supporting document “Is there room for all of us? Renewable energy and Xerospermophilus mohavensis.", 2013.

USGS biologists recommended the following dataset be used for the Mojave ground squirrel habitat model for DRECP planning purposes: MGS Habitat_ MEDIUM scale factors _anthro and USRED

Based on examination of species observation data and consultation with USGS biologists, Conservation Biology Institute masked the USGS Mojave ground squirrel model output to the union of the MGS historic range (provided by P. Leitner) and the USFS ecoregion subsections overlapping the historic range, which contain MGS observations. This masking process excludes the Maxent predicted habitat at the southern end of the DRECP study area, which experts indicate should be omitted from the model output (i.e. much of ecoregion subsection 322An).
Data Provided By:
United States Geological Survey
Content date:
not specified
Citation:
Inman RD, Esque TC, Nussear KE, Leitner P, Matocq MD, Weisberg PJ, Dilts TE, Vandergast AG. (2013) Is there room for all of us? Renewable energy and Xerospermophilus mohavensis. Endang Species Res 20:1-18
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United States Geological Survey
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Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
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xerospermophilus mohavensi, mojave ground squirrel, california energy commission, usgs, drecp, habitat suitability model
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