The North Carolina State Partnership
Title: A Model Biodiversity Analysis for Southeastern North Carolina
This State partnership will enable the Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources (DEHNR) including the N.C. State Museum of Natural Sciences, the N.C. Division of Parks and Recreation, and the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission, and many other State, federal and private institutions, and the NBS to develop compatible data systems and exchange information on species distribution. Future data exchange will be facilitated by an enhanced GIS capability and National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) accessibility.
The Museum of Natural Sciences and the Natural Heritage Program will facilitate the assembly of a variety of types of biological data, ranging from species-specific to landscape-scale perspectives. Criteria for data selection includes the precise location, accurate identification, and timeliness. Data standards are those approved by the Association of Systematics Collections, and accepted within the systematics and museum communities in the State of North Carolina and the Nation.
Technical specialists, employed part-time for this project at the Museum of Natural Sciences, in cooperation with State, other Federal and NBS staff, will identify and compile the data sets and assess their usability, including but not limited to: Selected species records for mammals, fishes, amphibians, reptiles, selected invertebrate species, and breeding birds (from the Museum of Natural Sciences);
Location data for rare species and high quality and significant natural communities (from the Natural Heritage Program);
Biological stream monitoring data and water quality data (from the Division of Environmental Management);
Verified data sets on indicator species locations, habitats (from multiple sources);
Data on human activities which affect natural communities (from the North Carolina Center for Geographic Information and Analysis); and
Products of GAP analysis, such as vegetation mapping and detailed soil maps to identify species distribution as it relates to succession (from the NBS).
All institutions with expertise and significant data on the State's biodiversity have been invited to review and comment on project progress at the end of each phase. The project coordinates with other large regional analysis projects including the Sandhills conservation initiative lead by US Fish & Wildlife Service and will benefit agencies such as the Wildlife Resources Commission, The Nature Conservancy, and other organizations charged with managing ecological resources. All participants plan to continue their cooperative efforts once the State partnership project objectives are accomplished. In fact, a memorandum of understanding among the participants of this NBS State partnership is being developed.
Data will be compiled in a GIS-compatible format. The GIS platform will be ArcInfo, the system used currently by both the Department of Environment, Health, and Natural Resources and the State's central GIS agency. A product will be GIS readable formats of the species and distributions contained within each partnership agency. Other important data sets that are not in GIS readable format, not computerized, and/or not currently available will be identified. GIS data layers for existing conservation lands, and for priority natural areas will be developed showing the existing conservation lands, land use, and whether in public or private ownership. The crucial data that is converted into an electronic format available for the spatial analysis will also be compatible with the NBII Initiative. This will not only enhance all the partners ability to use this data, but it will increase its accessibility for managers, additional analysis, and further research.
The GIS data layers on rare species and non-rare animal species, on high quality natural community locations, and on protected natural areas, are inputs needed for GAP analysis. Data will be coordinated with the GAP project to develop electronic map overlays. Coordination will include map scale, connectivity, edge matching, and habitat classification systems. Work done with the GAP analysis project by the Natural Heritage Program inventories will be expanded and continue through the cooperative relationship developed by this project. Much of this work, such as ground truthing is necessary to gain missing information in core areas. Rapid assessment techniques will be used to verify the predictions about animal usages of corridors and to asses the condition and quality of some areas to determine whether gaps are real or a result of sample limitations.
The Museum of Natural Sciences will prepare a report which describes species distribution and protection priorities. The report will also include methods used in the project, a model methodology for conducting similar studies in other regions, and descriptions of the geographic gaps in the species data to provide guidance for future inventories in the region. The distributional maps will contribute to the identification of natural areas and corridors and the development of succession/species dependence profile. The report, when used in conjunction with the maps will provide the ecological basis for a regional conservation plan and will be an invaluable tool for managers. A nontechnical report will also be developed to educate decisionmakers, county government leaders and conservation groups.
Southeastern North Carolina is an area of high biological diversity, including 80 species which are listed as federally endangered or threatened or are candidates for listing. Natural communities in this region are dominated by components of the Longleaf Pine ecosystem, but also include pocosins and the remaining parts of the Green Swamp. Natural succession in the area is controlled primarily by hydroperiod, soil type, and fire. A long range function of the database to be developed by the State Partnership will be to enable better conservation and management of the area's resources. The database will help measure community and specific species' responses to natural and managed plant succession.
The most important outgrowth of this State partnership will be a "living" data base into which new generations of data can be added and current data can constantly be upgraded as information is verified through ground truthing. In the future, researchers will be encouraged to set up studies in ways that their raw data can be incorporated into the system.
PARTNERSHIP CONTACTS: State: Department of Environment, Health and Natural Resources, North Carolina State Museum of Natural Sciences Bicentennial Plaza P.O. Box 29555 Raleigh, North Carolina 27626 Dr. Betsy Bennett, Director 919/733-7450 Maggie Jackson 919/733-7450, FAX -1573 David Lee, N.C. Biological Survey, Curator of Birds Alvin Braswell, Curator of Lower Vertebrates Mary Kay Clark, Curator of Mammals Rowland Shelley, Curator of Invertebrates John Gerwin, Curator of Birds Division of Parks and Recreation Linda Pearsall, Head, Natural Heritage Program Wildlife Resources Commission Randy Wilson, Non-Game and Endangered Wildlife Section ManagerN.C. Estuarine Research Reserve Steve Ross, Director Mary Moser, UNC Wilmington Fritz Rhode, Marine Fisheries Division of Environmental Management Vince Schneider, Environmental Biologist Department of Agriculture Ken Ahlstrom, State Entomologist Cecil Frost, Director, Plant Conservation Program
NBS: North Carolina Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit Box 7617, NCSU Raleigh, NC 27695-7617 Jim Flemming, Leader 919/515-2631 FAX: 919:515-4454
GAP Principal Investigator Jaime Collazo, Assistant Unit Leader
GIS Coordinator: Joseph Clark, Unit Leader, University of TN NBS Field Station 615/974-0739 FAX: 615/974-3555
NBII Contact: Anne Frondorf 202/482-4545
Funding: NBS Contribution $150,000. FY '94 $20,000, FY '95 $89,000, FY '96 $41,000 In Kind contributions: $21,242 NC State Museum of Natural Sciences $6,000 NC National Estuarine Research Reserve $75,000 NC Division of Parks and Recreation