With exploding human populations and landscapes that are changing, an increasing number of wildlife species are brought to the brink of extinction. In Canada, the eastern hog-nosed snake, 'Heterodon platirhinos', is found in a limited portion of southern Ontario. Designated as threatened by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), this reptile has been losing its habitat at an alarming rate. Due to the increase in development of southern Ontario, it is crucial to document what limits the snake’s habitat to direct conservation efforts better, for the long-term survival of this species. The goals of this study are: 1) to examine what environmental parameters are linked to the presence of the species at a landscape scale; 2) to predict where the snakes can be found in Ontario through GIS-based habitat suitability models (HSMs); and 3) to assess the role of biotic interactions in HSMs. Three models with high predictive power were employed: Maxent, Boosted Regression Trees (BRTs), and the Genetic Algorithm for Rule-set Production (GARP). Habitat suitability maps were constructed for the eastern hog-nosed snake for its entire Canadian distribution and models were validated with both threshold dependent and independent metrics. Maxent and BRT performed better than GARP and all models predict fewer areas of high suitability when landscape variables are used with current occurrences. Forest density and maximum temperature during the active season were the two variables that contributed the most to models predicting the current distribution of the species. Biotic variables increased the performance of models not by representing a limiting resource, but by representing the inequality of sampling and areas where forest remains. Although habitat suitability models rely on many assumptions, they remain useful in the fields of conservation and landscape management. In addition to help identify critical habitat, HSMs may be used as a tool to better manage land to allow for the survival of species at risk.

This study constructed habitat suitability criteria for fishes of the South Fork of the Shenandoah River, in Virginia. The criteria will be used in an IFIM study to produce estimates of the discharge required by fishes in the South Fork. Chi-square tests were used to evaluate whether criteria described habitat use to a statistically significant degree. Secondly, chi-square tests were used to test transferability. The criteria described the habitat use of seven taxa commonly found in the South Fork to a statistically significant degree. Habitat criteria for two taxa did not describe their habitat use to a statistically significant degree. One set of criteria from the North Fork of the Shenandoah transferred to the fish observed in the South Fork. Secondly, this paper examined observer effects of underwater observation. It was of interest to explore how observer effects influenced habitat suitability criteria.

In this study, I modeled the suitability of habitat on the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge for the federally endangered Mississippi Sandhill Crane (Grus Canadensis pulla). Habitat type and suitability changed over time due to seasonality of vegetation and succession in the absence of burning. Cranes used highly suitable habitat more in the non-growing than in the growing season, and may have been more constrained by resource availability during winter months. Cranes used some less-suitable areas including cypress drains, which provide roosting sites, and supplemental food plots. The mismatch between predicted quality and crane use suggests that no single habitat provides all resources required for the population to persist. Prescribed burning to maintain grassland habitat is essential for maintaining high quality habitat for cranes. The relative availability of food on supplemental food plots and grasslands, as well as the behavior of cranes toward roads, require additional investigation.

A conservação da biodiversidade tornou-se uma preocupação mundial devido ao aumento da taxa de extinção de espécies. Mesmo assim a importância da biodiversidade freqüentemente é subestimada, não sendo considerado seu papel chave na evolução e adaptação à mudança de ambientes e no fornecimento de bens e serviços para a humanidade. O Brasil tem importância central na conservação da biodiversidade mundial (é o primeiro em Megadiversidade e em Áreas Selvagens e possui dois Hotspots), sendo indispensável implementar instrumentos que contemplem a inclusão da biodiversidade no planejamento de uso e ocupação do solo. Visto que ainda não foi claramente definido como integrar efetivamente a biodiversidade nesse processo, este estudo investigou instrumentos indicados para esse fim, especialmente o Zoneamento Ambiental (ZA) e a Avaliação Ambiental Estratégica (AAE). O estudo de caso foi realizado no município de Brotas-SP. Primeiramente foram sobrepostos critérios e áreas prioritárias para a biodiversidade em escala nacional, estadual e municipal para a elaboração do mapa das áreas prioritárias para conservação e recuperação da biodiversidade local utilizando o programa IDRISI Andes Edition. Os resultados mostram que princípios e objetivos abordados em diversas escalas e em outros instrumentos de planejamento podem ser integrados ao processo de AAE. Também foram gerados modelos de distribuição de grandes mamíferos Chrysocyon brachyurus (loboguará), Leopardus pardalis (jaguatirica) e Puma concolor (onça-parda) para a região central do Estado de São Paulo (Brotas e municípios do seu entorno). Para isso, foram utilizados dados biológicos do banco de dados do Programa Biota-FAPESP aos quais foi aplicado o modelo MAXENT. As técnicas de Sistemas de Informação Geográfica aplicadas neste estudo permitiram integrar princípios e objetivos relacionados à biodiversidade já abordados em outros instrumentos e estabelecidos em níveis nacionais, estaduais e municipais ao planejamento espacial. A modelagem permitiu a determinação da adequabilidade ambiental das áreas testadas e a inclusão dessas áreas como critérios a serem considerados ao planejamento de uso e ocupação do solo. Os resultados da modelagem mostraram que o território de Brotas abrange áreas altamente adequadas para as três espécies estudadas. Os mapas gerados foram reclassificados para a elaboração dos mapas das áreas prioritárias para conservação de grandes mamíferos na região central do Estado de São Paulo. Tanto o mapa de áreas prioritárias para a conservação da biodiversidade local quanto o mapa de áreas prioritárias para grandes mamíferos elaborados nesse estudo podem ser incluídos no planejamento de uso e ocupação do solo, tanto em ZAs como em AAEs. As técnicas utilizadas nesse estudo podem embasar a escolha de alternativas de uso e ocupação do solo, direcionando a alocação de Reservas Legais - RLs -, subsidiando a elaboração de ações de recuperação da biodiversidade e direcionando estratégias de manejo. / Biodiversity conservation has become a worldwide concern due to the increased rate of species extinction. Nevertheless, the importance of biodiversity is often underestimated and its key role in the evolution, adaptation to changing environments and the supply of goods and services to humanity is not considered. Brazil has a central importance in global biodiversity conservation (its the first in Megadiversity and Wilderness Areas, and it has two hotspots). Therefore, the implementation of tools that address the inclusion of biodiversity in land-use planning is essential. Seeing that how to integrate biodiversity in this process has not been clearly defined, this study investigated tools for integrate the biodiversity in land-use planning, specially the zoning and the Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA). The case study has been the municipality of Brotas, state of São Paulo, Brazil. Firstly, criteria and priority areas for biodiversity at the national, state and municipal level have been overlapping using the software IDRISI Andes Edition to prepare the map of priority areas for conservation and recovery of local biodiversity. The results indicate that the principles and objectives discussed at various scales and in other planning tools can be integrated by the use of Geographic Information System (GIS). In addition, models of distribution of great mammals - Chrysocyon brachyurus (maned wolf), Leopardus pardalis (Ocelot) and Puma concolor (puma) have been generated for the central region of São Paulo (Brotas and its surrounding cities). For this, biological data from the database of the Biota-FAPESP have been used and the software MAXENT has been applied. Modeling results show that the study area is highly suitable for the three species. The maps of models have been reclassified to prepare maps of priority areas for conservation in the central region of São Paulo. The both final maps developed in this study (map of priority areas for conservation of local biodiversity and maps of priority areas for large mammals) may be included in zoning and SEA process. The techniques applied in this study permit to integrate the principles and objectives relating to biodiversity in land-use planning, supporting the choice of alternatives for use and occupation, basing the allocation of legal reserves, subsidizing the development of management actions and guide decision makers to choose the best alternatives for development.

Conservation biologists have used reintroduction as a method to reestablish extirpated species in their native habitat. Three important aspects of a successful reintroduction effort include: (1) a habitat suitability study of the reintroduction area, including effects of migration corridors; (2) identification of possible predators of the reintroduced species; and (3) a post-reintroduction assessment including an evaluation of the species' population dynamics. In this study I examine the suitability of Guadalupe Mountains National Park (GUMO) as a reintroduction area for desert bighorn sheep. The study used landscape metrics to compare GUMO to a nearby mountain range that is currently supporting an estimated population of 400 bighorn sheep. This study identified migration corridors for bighorns throughout the region and evaluated mountain lion (a potential predator of bighorn sheep) numbers either residing in or passing through the park between the years 1997 to 2004. Results on the studies in GUMO revealed 15,884 ha of suitable habitat for bighorn sheep and provided evidence of migration routes between GUMO and neighboring mountain ranges. In terms of potential predators, a minimum of 32 resident and/or transient mountain lions occurred in GUMO over a seven year period, and a minimum of 15 cats used the park in 2002. Based on estimates of individual home range of males and females, GUMO should be able to support four to five individuals. The genetic data indicates a high number of transients or perhaps an unstable population of mountain lions that may be the result of intense hunting pressure of cats in Texas. Finally, my study simulates parameters of the population dynamics of a different species, the Arabian oryx that was reintroduced as three separate populations to the Israeli Negev between 1998 and 2005. I simulated population growth and the effect of migration corridors on species persistence. Results suggest that migration corridors are essential for a self-sustaining viable metapopulation under current natality rates. In the event that natality rates increase (as was evident in a reintroduced population of Arabian oryx in Oman), metapopulation can reach viable size with only two of the release sites (open, flat terrain) connected by migration corridors.

With exploding human populations and landscapes that are changing, an increasing number of wildlife species are brought to the brink of extinction. In Canada, the eastern hog-nosed snake, 'Heterodon platirhinos', is found in a limited portion of southern Ontario. Designated as threatened by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), this reptile has been losing its habitat at an alarming rate. Due to the increase in development of southern Ontario, it is crucial to document what limits the snake’s habitat to direct conservation efforts better, for the long-term survival of this species. The goals of this study are: 1) to examine what environmental parameters are linked to the presence of the species at a landscape scale; 2) to predict where the snakes can be found in Ontario through GIS-based habitat suitability models (HSMs); and 3) to assess the role of biotic interactions in HSMs. Three models with high predictive power were employed: Maxent, Boosted Regression Trees (BRTs), and the Genetic Algorithm for Rule-set Production (GARP). Habitat suitability maps were constructed for the eastern hog-nosed snake for its entire Canadian distribution and models were validated with both threshold dependent and independent metrics. Maxent and BRT performed better than GARP and all models predict fewer areas of high suitability when landscape variables are used with current occurrences. Forest density and maximum temperature during the active season were the two variables that contributed the most to models predicting the current distribution of the species. Biotic variables increased the performance of models not by representing a limiting resource, but by representing the inequality of sampling and areas where forest remains. Although habitat suitability models rely on many assumptions, they remain useful in the fields of conservation and landscape management. In addition to help identify critical habitat, HSMs may be used as a tool to better manage land to allow for the survival of species at risk.

The west coast of Taiwan is densely populated with frequently activities for industrial and economic developments. The area is also the site with the existence of Chinese White Dolphin (CWD). Because the arising of ecosystem conservation, the government has attempted to promote the west coast as the marine protected areas (MPAs) for the CWD. Nevertheless, it is required to assess changes of environmental condition and marine environmental quality around the area before the establishment of marine protected areas to the site. If ineffective monitoring is implemented, then the establishment of marine protected areas will be no use. This study was initiated to assess the marine environmental condition by collecting and surveying the long term monitoring data that were published under the government reports and documents to assess the temporal and spatial trends of environmental factors. The data consists of rivers, trench, and marine water or sediments. The study areas covered Taichung County to Yunlin County. The methods for assessing the environmental quality included the use of geographic information system (GIS) for the biological distribution, regression analysis for the trend monitoring of chemical contaminants and physical environmental factors between 2001 ¡V 2010 year surveys. The overall environmental quality within the studied sites were further evaluated for the river pollution index (RPI) and the habitat suitability index (HSI). The survey results of 10 years river monitoring from Taichung to Yunlin showed that Hsin-Huu-Wei River belong to serious pollution with RPI 6.67 value. Yuanlin drainage, one of the six drainages of Chang Hua Coast Industrial Park, belongs to serious pollution with RPI 6.08 value. The RPI results of Six trenches around the Chang-Hua Coast Industrial Park showed that Tien-Wei trench 2, Lun-Wei trench 1, and Ji-An trench belong to mid level of pollution (RPI 3.7~3.975). In the marine water survey, the results showed that the pH values were found lower at southern-ward monitoring station nearby the Formosa Petrochemical Corporation No. 6 Naphtha Cracking Industry site. The nitrogen-NH3 concentrations were found high in Jhuo-Shuei River and No. 6 Naphtha Cracking industry. The concentration of Chlorophyll-a was high in Chang-Hua Coast Industrial Park. In the survey of sediment, Hsin-Huu-Wei River arsenic concentration (As) was over the EPA guidelines, but the concentrations of Cr, Cu, Pb, Zn were within the level of required limits. In the biological survey, the results showed that abundance and species were not evenly distributed with non-comprehensive trends related to the environmental condition or changes. These indicated that biological monitoring survey displayed less important than physical and chemical monitoring for the assessment of man-made pollution or environmental impact from the industrial activities. Overall the monitor sites of river, drainage and trench were differed without a consistent sampling scheme. The offshore sites were sampled greatly in distance, i.e. the farthermost point at four sea miles that had caused difficulties for the comparison of data results collected in different time. It is very uneasy to evaluate the pollution monitoring results. Thus, it is required to develop a long-term environmental quality monitoring plan for the assessment of water quality and sediment of river and marine water with appropriate / consistency sampling method, monitor time and site scheme. Finally, the relevant authorities should implement river remediation to improve the pollution and thereby to maintain the sustainability of marine environment. It is required to establish an integral monitoring program consisting of water and sediment and bio-monitoring in rivers, estuary, and marine to better predict the marine environmental quality. Also the integral and long-term monitoring program should ensure to predict the changes of west coastal and to achieve the effectiveness of marine environment.

The west coast of Taiwan is enriched with biological resources. The areas are the economic development sites with highly industrialized activities and densely population. The government attempts to promote the sites for the establishment of marine protected areas (MPA) because of the existence of Chinese White Dolphin (Sousa Chinensis) which is the most important issues against the sustainable development of economy. Thus, the present study was initiated to assess the marine environmental quality (MEQ) in the west coast of Taiwan. The research consists of the integral monitoring assessments of rivers, estuaries and the marine areas. This work collected, reviewed and analyzed the environmental monitoring data from industrial environmental impact assessment reports and governmental documents for the evaluation of spatial and temporal trends of the west coast areas over the last ten year. The assessment is required to understand the possible interactive problems between the marine protected areas and the marine environmental quality prior to the establishment of MPA acts. The present work consists of the subsection of coastal areas ranging from Hsinchu Country to Taichung Harbour. Ten annual monitoring data including the water quality or sediments of rivers, estuaries, and marine were assessed for the spatial and temporal trends of physical, chemical and biological changes over the years. The approaches for assessing the sites included the geographic information system (GIS) spatial analysis method and linear regression of monitoring data. The levels of pollution were also evaluated by using the river pollution index (RPI). The effect of habitat suitability index (HSI) was also calculated. The results of river water quality assessment showed that the Ke-ya-si, Jhong-gang river, and Nan-gan river were seriously polluted with RPI¡Ö6. The river seiment contaminants (Cu¡BNi) were significantly increased in the Ke-ya-si and Jhong-gang river. The water quality of Taichung Port drainage showed serious pollution with low dissolved oxygen (DO), high concentrations of ammonia nitrogen, and high counts of coli-forms. The Taichung Port drainage sediment contaminants (As¡BCu¡BHg¡BZn) had higher than the average of EPA guidelines. This could be resulting from the significant point source of industries pollutants discharged into the river. The significant amounts of waste water discharged into ocean could cause the impacts to the marine environment. The present study demonstrated the impacts to the river monitoring site although the ocean water quality monitoring contaminants were found without signicant changes in all time. This suggests that the ocean water quality monitoring sites were inconsistently sampled at 4 nm away from the coast which caused the dilution of contaminant concentrations and affecting the monitoring effectiveness. The sediment contaminants in Taichung Port monitoring site showed with the exception of appearing unusual change. The results also showed that there is lack of bio-monitoring program carried out in rivers, estuary, and marine that are imperatively needed to resolve the ineffective sampling protocol implemented in the current coastal environmental monitoring. This is owing to the non unified for authorization between the municipality and environmental bureau. The Canada Ocean Acts on assessing the water and sediment and bio-monitoring in rivers, estuary, and marine as a whole concept were compared with the present study. Finally, the relevant authorities should implement river remediation to improve the pollution and thereby to maintain the sustainability of marine environment. It is needed to establish an integral monitoring program consisting of water and sediment and bio-monitoring in rivers, estuary, and marine to better predict the marine environmental quality. Also the integral and long-term monitoring program should ensure to predict the changes of west coastal and to achieve the effectiveness of marine management.

Conservation biologists have used reintroduction as a method to reestablish extirpated species in their native habitat. Three important aspects of a successful reintroduction effort include: (1) a habitat suitability study of the reintroduction area, including effects of migration corridors; (2) identification of possible predators of the reintroduced species; and (3) a post-reintroduction assessment including an evaluation of the species' population dynamics. In this study I examine the suitability of Guadalupe Mountains National Park (GUMO) as a reintroduction area for desert bighorn sheep. The study used landscape metrics to compare GUMO to a nearby mountain range that is currently supporting an estimated population of 400 bighorn sheep. This study identified migration corridors for bighorns throughout the region and evaluated mountain lion (a potential predator of bighorn sheep) numbers either residing in or passing through the park between the years 1997 to 2004. Results on the studies in GUMO revealed 15,884 ha of suitable habitat for bighorn sheep and provided evidence of migration routes between GUMO and neighboring mountain ranges. In terms of potential predators, a minimum of 32 resident and/or transient mountain lions occurred in GUMO over a seven year period, and a minimum of 15 cats used the park in 2002. Based on estimates of individual home range of males and females, GUMO should be able to support four to five individuals. The genetic data indicates a high number of transients or perhaps an unstable population of mountain lions that may be the result of intense hunting pressure of cats in Texas. Finally, my study simulates parameters of the population dynamics of a different species, the Arabian oryx that was reintroduced as three separate populations to the Israeli Negev between 1998 and 2005. I simulated population growth and the effect of migration corridors on species persistence. Results suggest that migration corridors are essential for a self-sustaining viable metapopulation under current natality rates. In the event that natality rates increase (as was evident in a reintroduced population of Arabian oryx in Oman), metapopulation can reach viable size with only two of the release sites (open, flat terrain) connected by migration corridors.

The seagrass resource provides essential ecosystem functions for many marine species. This research evaluated the vulnerability and sustainability of the seagrass resource in an urbanized area to the effects of sea level rise. The assessment required analysis of information regarding the biogeography of the seagrass resource, and developing a method to model the spatial extent of the suitable habitat for seagrass, and applying the model to predict the implications of simulated sea level rise scenarios on the seagrass resource. Examining the biogeography of the seagrass resource required the development of a seagrass monitoring and assessment field survey and a comprehensive seagrass resource map (SGRM). The mesoscale field survey was designed and conducted in St. Joseph Sound (STJS) and Clearwater Harbor North (CLWN), Pinellas County, Florida from 2006-2010 to determine the seagrass species composition and spatial distribution for the resource. The seagrass species found in the study area consisted of Syringodium filiforme Kützing (Syringodium), Thalassia testudinum Banks ex König (Thalassia), and Halodule wrightii Ascherson (Halodule). These seagrass species occurred in monospecific and mixed beds in all combinations throughout the study area. Spatially, Thalassia was the dominant nearshore in STJS and Halodule in CLWN. Syringodium was most frequently found in STJS in the mid to deep depths. The SGRM was mapped from satellite remote sensing imagery with training information from the mesoscale field survey data. Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) and Earth Observing-1 Hyperion (HYP) were processed to map the seagrass resource in the study area in a nearshore shallow coastal area of Pinellas County, FL, USA. A maximum likelihood classification (MLC) was used to classify both TM and HYP imagery into three classes (seagrass estimated coverage) of the seagrass resource. The overall accuracy for the TM MLC map was 91% (kappa = 0.85) and the HYP was 95% (kappa = 0.92). Due to areas of cloud cover in the HYP image, it was necessary to composite the classification values from the TM MLC to accurately define these areas. The validation accuracy (n=72) of the composite seagrass resource map was 81% which was much more rigorous than the previous accuracy estimates. These results support the application of remote sensing methods to analyze the spatial extent of the seagrass resource. The development of a spatial habitat suitability model (HSM) for the seagrass resource provided a management tool to better understand the relationship between seagrass, water quality, and other environmental factors. The motivation to develop the spatial HSM was to provide a spatial modeling tool to simulate changes in the water quality environment and evaluate the potential impact on the seagrass resource. High resolution bathymetry and field survey water quality data were used to fit general additive models (GAM) to the STJS (Adjusted R2= 0.72, n=134) and CLWN (Adjusted R2= 0.75, n=138) seagrass resource. The final GAMs included water quality variables including salinity, chlorophyll-a concentration, total suspended solids, turbidity, and light. The only significant variable was the light metric in STJS (p-value= 0.001) and CLWN (p-value= 0.006). The light metric was the logarithmic light attenuation calculated from the water quality field survey transmittance (660nm) data and the high resolution bathymetry. The overall accuracy (OA) of the predictive GAM rasters was higher in CLWN (95%, kappa =0.88) than in STJS (82%, kappa = 0.40). The increased prediction error in STJS was spatially correlated with the areas of lower density seagrass along the deep edge of the bed. While there may be a plethora of factors contributing to the decreased density of the seagrass, this may indicate these seagrass were already living at the edge of the suitable habitat. Factors threatening the sustainability of the seagrass resource included those related to water quality and environmental changes. Knowledge of these relationships was essential to develop a predictive spatial HSM to simulate responses of the seagrass to changes in the water quality and the environment. Historically, environmental management strategies focused on water quality targets, but have not considered mitigation for climate change impacts, specifically sea level rise (SLR). This study utilized the HSM for the seagrass resource as a management tool to better understand the relationship between seagrass, water quality, and sea level rise scenarios. Based on SLR scenarios for 1ft-6ft (0.305m-1.83m) from 2010 to 2100, the potential seagrass habitat loss and gain was analyzed. From the current 60 km2 of seagrass habitat in St. Joseph Sound (STJS) and Clearwater Harbor North (CLWN), the predicted seagrass habitat loss based on the HSM which focused on light availability for photosynthesis ranged from 14 km2 (SLR 1ft) to 26 km2 (SLR 2ft) to the entire 60 km2 (SLR 6ft). The potential seagrass habitat gain based on the coastal flooding model (NOAA, 2012) ranged from 4 km2 (SLR 1ft) to 19 km2 (SLR 6ft). However, based on the spatial distribution of the seagrass and the proximity of the seagrass to the new habitat, the potential viable habitat based on the mean seagrass growth rates (horizontal rhizome elongation) only ranged from 2 km2 (SLR 1ft) to 9 km2 (SLR 6ft). An additional complexity to the gain of seagrass habitat was the effect of the anthropogenically altered shorelines, seawalls, which covered 47% of the shoreline. These seawalls potentially could impede the inundation of the seawater and the seagrass colonization of these areas by creating a vertical boundary for seagrass growth. The mitigation of the potential effects of SLR on the seagrass resource may require ecosystem level management. While management of water quality would continue to benefit the seagrass resource, additional management strategies would be necessary to mitigate for potential decrease in suitable seagrass habitat related to the effects of SLR. A discussion of potential management approaches suggested that the integration of coastal shoreline management strategies and seagrass resource management would be essential to insure the sustainability of the resource.