Jeff Malone

Modeling Conservation Priorities in Veracruz,

Mexico

Designation of conservation and protection usually based on factors such as:Historical significanceRecreational useScenic beautyProtection of wetlands, forests, watersheds

Biodiversity is usually NOT taken into account

The Problem

Efforts to ID gaps in biodiversity protectionMap predictions of species distributionCompare to protected areas

For example…

The Solution

Long Tailed Sabrewing

Species distribution modeling of preservation systems

For 19 bird and mammal speciesDistributions were modeledGaps in protection identified

Northeastern Mexico Case Study

Possible solution developed for enhancing protection of species

Red-Crowned Parrot

2 types of data usedSpecies distribution dataEnvironmental attribute

data (in raster GIS architecture)

Species selected have primary native habitat in Veracruz, Mexico

Selection as well as distributional data based on literature and observations

Methodology

Bearded Wood Partridge

Thematic geographic layers used to define environmental variables

Combined to create single image fileThen for each species distribution point, the

values for each geographic layer were extracted

Methodology Continued

Crimson- Collared Grosbeak

Those values from the geographic layers were used to create a 6-dimensional boxIts limits represent the defining criteria for

species distributionUsed to select pixels in study area meeting

same criteria

Methodology Continued

Mexican Black Agouti

Also known as a ‘parallelepiped’

The 6 layers a filtered through a decision ruleTo produce a predicted distribution map

Which was plausibility tested based on field knowledge

6 species were overestimated in the literatureAreas of overestimation were set to zero in the

GIS distribution maps

Methodology Continued

Tawny-Collared Nightjar

Decision Rule Filtering

Final Step: optimal reserve system was identified based on predicted distributions

Buffer was created around each predicted distributional pixel

All buffered species maps were summed to create a map of species richnessMore species in an area, higher conservation

prioritySpecies present were removed, summed

remaining species maps to ID next conservation priority

Methodology Continued

Black dots = known presenceDark gray = predicted locationLight gray = apparent overestimations

For comparison, existing protected areas were evaluated the same wayEach protected area evaluated for species

richness

Methodology Continued

Mexican Sheartail

Existing preserves buffered to 100,000 haRaster GIS overlay operation used to

compare protected areas to species richnessOf 19 species, 12 are found in currently

protected areas

Results

Dwarf Jay

Identified reserve system ignoring current one16 species in 4 reserves, all 19 in 7

reservesBut cannot ignore/scrap current

preservesAlternative is to complement

existing preserves with unprotected speciesBy adding 5 of the potential

preserves from optimal model, all 19 native species could be protected

More plausible to take a hybrid approach

Results Continued

Altamira Yellowthroat

Black dots = existing preservesDark gray = potential new preserves(1,3,5,6 and 7 combined would protect all 19 species)