Full ecoregional plan - Conservation Gateway
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Full ecoregional plan - Conservation Gateway

Full ecoregional plan - Conservation Gateway Full ecoregional plan - Conservation Gateway

conservationgateway.org
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13.07.2015 Views

Fragmentation: Process by which habitats are increasingly subdivided into smaller units,resulting in their increased insularity as well as losses of total habitat area.Fragmentation may be caused by humans (such as development of a road) or by naturalprocesses (such as a tornado).GAP (National Gap Analysis Program): Gap analysis is a scientific method foridentifying the degree to which native animal species and natural communities arerepresented in our present-day mix of conservation lands. Those species andcommunities not adequately represented in the existing network of conservation landsconstitute conservation “gaps.” The purpose of the Gap Analysis Program (GAP) is toprovide broad geographic information on the status of ordinary species (those notthreatened with extinction or naturally rare) and their habitats in order to provide landmanagers, planners, scientists, and policy makers with the information they need tomake better-informed decisions.GIS (Geographic Information System): A computerized system of organizing andanalyzing any spatial array of data and information.Global Rank: A numerical assessment of a biological element’s relative imperilment andconservation status across its range of distribution ranging from G1 (criticallyimperiled) to G5 (secure). Assigned by the Natural Heritage Network, global ranks forcommunities are determined primarily by the number of occurrences and total area ofcoverage (communities only), modified by other factors such as condition, historic trendin distribution or condition, vulnerability, and threats.Goal: see Conservation Goal.Habitat: The place or type of site where species and species assemblages are typicallyfound and/or are successfully reproducing. In addition, marine communities andsystems are referred to as habitats. They are named according to the features thatprovide the underlying structural basis for the community.Heritage Inventory: A term used loosely to describe the efforts of the Network of NaturalHeritage Programs and Conservation Data Centers to inventory geographic areas foroccurrences of elements of biodiversity, or to describe the standardized methodologiesused by Heritage Programs to store and manage data collected by inventory efforts.Heritage: A term used loosely to describe the Network of Natural Heritage Programs andConservation Data Centers or to describe the standardized methodologies used by theseprograms.Herptile: A term encompassing reptiles and amphibians.Imperiled Species: Species which have a global rank of G1–G2 assigned by NaturalHeritage Programs or Conservation Data Centers. Regularly reviewed and updated byexperts, these ranks take into account number of occurrences, quality and condition ofoccurrences, population size, range of distribution, threats and protection status.Indicator Species: A species used as a gauge for the condition of a particular habitat,community, or ecosystem. A characteristic or surrogate species for a community orecosystem.Indigenous: A species that is naturally occurring in a given area and elsewhere.UPDATED 6/2003GLOS-4

Integration: A portfolio assembly principle where sites that contain high-qualityoccurrences of both aquatic and terrestrial targets are given priority.Irreplaceable: The single most outstanding example of a target species, community, orsystem, or a population that is critical to a species remaining extant and not goingextinct.Keystone Species: A species whose impacts on its community or ecosystem are large;much larger than would be expected from its abundance.Landscape: A heterogeneous land area composed of a cluster of interacting ecosystemsthat are repeated in similar form throughout.Large Patch: Communities that form large areas of interrupted cover. Individualoccurrences of this community patch type typically range in size from 50 to 2,000hectares. Large patch communities are associated with environmental conditions thatare more specific than those of matrix communities, and that are less common or lessextensive in the landscape. Like matrix communities, large-patch communities are alsoinfluenced by large-scale processes, but these tend to be modified by specific sitefeatures that influence the community.Legacies (or Biological Legacies): Features of an ecosystem that include vegetationstructure and all the accumulating organic materials that stabilize a system and link ithistorically to a place. These features, collectively termed biological legacies, includecoarse woody debris, seed banks, soil nutrient reservoirs and extensive fungal networks— essentially the by-products of previous or current residents.Linear Communities : Communities that occur as linear strips are often, but not always,transition zones between terrestrial and aquatic systems. Examples include coastalbeach strands, bedrock lakeshores, and narrow riparian communities. Similar to smallpatch communities, linear communities occur in very specific conditions, and theaggregate of all linear communities covers, or historically covered, only a smallpercentage of the natural vegetation of the ecoregion. They also tend to support aspecific and restricted set of associated flora and fauna. Linear communities differ fromsmall patch communities in that both local scale and large-scale processes stronglyinfluence community structure and function.Macrohabitats: Macrohabitats are the finest-scale biophysical classification unit used asconservation targets. Examples are lakes and stream/river segments that are delineated,mapped, and classified according to the environmental factors that determine the typesand distributions of aquatic species assemblages.Matrix-forming (or Matrix Community) : Communities that form extensive andcontiguous cover may be categorized as matrix (or matrix-forming) community types.Matrix communities occur on the most extensive landforms and typically have wideecological tolerances. They may be characterized by a complex mosaic of successionalstages resulting from characteristic disturbance processes (e.g. New England northernhardwood-conifer forests). Individual occurrences of the matrix type typically range insize from 2000 to 500,000 hectares. In a typical ecoregion, the aggregate of all matrixcommunities covers, or historically covered, as much as 75-80% of the naturalvegetation of the ecoregion. Matrix community types are often influenced by large-scaleUPDATED 6/2003GLOS-5

Fragmentation: Process by which habitats are increasingly subdivided into smaller units,resulting in their increased insularity as well as losses of total habitat area.Fragmentation may be caused by humans (such as development of a road) or by naturalprocesses (such as a tornado).GAP (National Gap Analysis Program): Gap analysis is a scientific method foridentifying the degree to which native animal species and natural communities arerepresented in our present-day mix of conservation lands. Those species andcommunities not adequately represented in the existing network of conservation landsconstitute conservation “gaps.” The purpose of the Gap Analysis Program (GAP) is toprovide broad geographic information on the status of ordinary species (those notthreatened with extinction or naturally rare) and their habitats in order to provide landmanagers, <strong>plan</strong>ners, scientists, and policy makers with the information they need tomake better-informed decisions.GIS (Geographic Information System): A computerized system of organizing andanalyzing any spatial array of data and information.Global Rank: A numerical assessment of a biological element’s relative imperilment andconservation status across its range of distribution ranging from G1 (criticallyimperiled) to G5 (secure). Assigned by the Natural Heritage Network, global ranks forcommunities are determined primarily by the number of occurrences and total area ofcoverage (communities only), modified by other factors such as condition, historic trendin distribution or condition, vulnerability, and threats.Goal: see <strong>Conservation</strong> Goal.Habitat: The place or type of site where species and species assemblages are typicallyfound and/or are successfully reproducing. In addition, marine communities andsystems are referred to as habitats. They are named according to the features thatprovide the underlying structural basis for the community.Heritage Inventory: A term used loosely to describe the efforts of the Network of NaturalHeritage Programs and <strong>Conservation</strong> Data Centers to inventory geographic areas foroccurrences of elements of biodiversity, or to describe the standardized methodologiesused by Heritage Programs to store and manage data collected by inventory efforts.Heritage: A term used loosely to describe the Network of Natural Heritage Programs and<strong>Conservation</strong> Data Centers or to describe the standardized methodologies used by theseprograms.Herptile: A term encompassing reptiles and amphibians.Imperiled Species: Species which have a global rank of G1–G2 assigned by NaturalHeritage Programs or <strong>Conservation</strong> Data Centers. Regularly reviewed and updated byexperts, these ranks take into account number of occurrences, quality and condition ofoccurrences, population size, range of distribution, threats and protection status.Indicator Species: A species used as a gauge for the condition of a particular habitat,community, or ecosystem. A characteristic or surrogate species for a community orecosystem.Indigenous: A species that is naturally occurring in a given area and elsewhere.UPDATED 6/2003GLOS-4

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