Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative

Estimating distribution and connectivity of recolonizing American marten in the northeastern United States using expert elicitation techniques: Distribution map

Download Metadata
View Metadata in XML Format

Metadata Provider

  • Forest Ecosystem Monitoring Cooperative

    • Address:
      705 Spear Street
      South Burlington, Vermont 05403
      United States of America

      Phone: (802) 391-4135
      Email: femc@uvm.edu
      Website: www.uvm.edu/femc

Abstract

    The American marten Martes americana is a species of conservation concern in the northeastern United States due to widespread declines from over-harvesting and habitat loss. Little information exists on current marten distribution and how landscape characteristics shape patterns of occupancy across the region, which could help develop effective recovery strategies. The rarity of marten and lack of historical distribution records are also problematic for region-wide conservation planning. Expert opinion can provide a source of information for estimating species–landscape relationships and is especially useful when empirical data are sparse. We created a survey to elicit expert opinion and build a model that describes marten occupancy in the northeastern United States as a function of landscape conditions.

People

  • Terri Donovan: Content Provider

  • William Kilpatrick: Content Provider

  • James Murdoch: Principal Investigator

  • Cody Aylward: Content Provider

  • Chris Bernier: Content Provider

  • Jon Katz: Content Provider

Keywords

  • distribution, map, martes americana, northeast, occupancy, raster,

Organizations

  • Northeastern States Research Cooperative : funder
  • United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture: funder
  • University of Vermont Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources: lead
  • Vermont Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit : partner
  • Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department : partner

Geographic Coverage

  • Coordinates

    Data Table

    • Title: Distribution map
    • Start Date: 2015-01-01
    • End Date: 2018-01-01
    • Description: This is a raster map of American marten (Martes americana) distribution in the northeastern United States. The value of each pixel in the map is an estimate of the probability of marten occupancy. Probability values were calculated from an occupancy model based on expert opinion data. For details on the collection of expert opinion data, the modeling process, and the development of the distribution map, please see: Aylward, C. M., J. D. Murdoch, T. M. Donovan, C. W. Kilpatrick, C. Bernier, and J. Katz. 2018. Estimating distribution and connectivity of recolonizing American marten in the northeastern United States using expert elicitation techniques. Animal Conservation (doi:10.1111/acv.12417). See figure 4 and table 4 in this publication (the map was based on the model averaged model).

    • Purpose: Estimating movement corridors between isolated core populations of the American marten using circuit theory. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of expert-opinion data at modeling occupancy for rare species and provide tools for planning marten recovery in

    • Condensed Title: 20180531112132_marten_distribution_northeast.img

    • Object Name: VMC.1266.2515

    • Data Type: mySQL
    • Citation: James Murdoch (2018) American marten distribution in the northeastern United States based on expert opinion data. FEMC. Available online at: https://www.uvm.edu/femc/data/archive/project/marten/dataset/distribution

    • Online Distribution: https://vmc.w3.uvm.edu/vmcdevel/data/archive/project/marten/dataset/distribution

    Attribute List

    Methods

    • No methods recorded for this dataset

    Sampling Equipment

    • No sampling equipment recorded for this dataset

    Site Characteristics

    • No site characteristics recorded for this dataset