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Analysis Of Conservation Practices In The Blackland Prairie Region Of Mississippi And Construction Of A Predictor For Locating New Sites For Conservation Efforts

Mississippi’s Blackland Prairie has been reduced below 10% of pre-Columbian extent, with few conservation practices in place. To determine efficacy of current restoration practices, plant species at remnant sites were compared with those at restoration sites. Analyses using multivariate statistical approaches revealed no generalizable patterns among four available remnants versus two available restoration sites. Thus, the aim of this project shifted to evaluating methods of identifying Blackland Prairie remnants or potential restoration sites. Location data for Blackland Prairie plant species and potentially informative environmental variables were used to develop geographic information system (GIS)-based habitat models. The best models were selected for validation against a second set of data collected from random points on public lands across the survey region. Validation surveys also were used to explore trends in predictive success and to aid in increasing accuracy through inclusion of other variables. Models incorporating soil characteristics had the highest predictive success.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:MSSTATE/oai:scholarsjunction.msstate.edu:td-1635
Date30 April 2011
CreatorsHughes, Steven Cameron
PublisherScholars Junction
Source SetsMississippi State University
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
SourceTheses and Dissertations

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