Habitat Suitability

[BioNCphilic]

Hey - I thought it might help to write out some strategies for this assignment before getting in the weeds with coding. Anyone want to share? What question do you hope to answer about potential future changes in habitat suitability? What is the species you want to study?

I live on the east coast so the grassland database is not going to be helpful for me and I've picked Rhododendron maximum. I found the USDA Symbol for it is: rhma4 You want to check your species USDA symbol. I'm wondering if we can look geographically at entire states or if our scale needs to be more localized. Herer's the current distribution.

Some studies on the role of Rhododendron:
"Studies suggest that rhododendron may also be an emerging foundation species in headwater streams through its influence on three aspects of stream ecosystems: algal production, litter inputs, and nitrogen dynamics.......Rhododendron may buffer the effect of climatic variability on stream and terrestrialecosystems. Rhododendron’s dense shade keeps soil cool er (Nilsen et al. 2001) and may reduce effects associated with increasing temperature." 1.

My question is: "What are the potential climate change impacts on headwater habitats?"
Should I look at data at the watershed area level instead of a state level analysis? This might also make sense by giving me practice because modeling hydrology is the main focus for my independent project.

I'd love to hear what you're thinking about and the resources you're using....

[hanried]

I'm planning on looking at the tree species Populus tremuloides, AKA the quaking aspen. It's very common in the Rocky Mountains and very popular in the fall when it changes colors.

The USDA PLANTS database was helpful to find some specific preferences of the tree, such as soil pH, precipitation, and root depth. I also was able to use the USDA Fire Effects Information System (FEIS) website to get some other specifics about aspens, mainly the aspects it prefers. The FEIS site was nice because it had a lot more specifics based on where the tree grows (it seems like aspens have different aspect preferences in the Southwest vs Alaska, for example).

I haven't narrowed down what question I'd like to answer yet. According to the PLANTS database, the quaking aspen needs a minimum of 70 frost free days (on average) so I may look to see if future time periods will meet that requirement.

I think you definitely could use states as your areas of interest, but agree that depending on your question, it may not make sense. I wonder if states could also be hard just because they are such large areas and one state could have many different environments. The variability of habitats in one state could introduce a lot of confounding variables.

[katherinesiegel]

I second what Hannah said -- I think you want to look at a smaller spatial region than an entire state. You could download GBIF observations for the species and see which parks or watersheds it's found in -- I'm working on a demonstration to do that and will post it soon.

[BioNCphilic]

I'm planning to use US Census Tiger files for a county in NC and one in ME.