Identifying potential habitat for the endangered Aleutian shield fern using topographical characteristics

Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management
By: , and 

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Abstract

The Aleutian shield fern Polystichum aleuticum is endemic to the Aleutian archipelago of Alaska and is listed as endangered pursuant to the U.S. Endangered Species Act. Despite numerous efforts to discover new populations of this species, only four known populations are documented to date, and information is needed to prioritize locations for future surveys. Therefore, we incorporated topographical habitat characteristics (elevation, slope, aspect, distance from coastline, and anthropogenic footprint) found at known Aleutian shield fern locations into a Geographical Information System (GIS) model to create a habitat suitability map for the entirety of the Andreaonof Islands. A total of 18 islands contained 489.26 km2 of highly suitable and moderately suitable habitat when weighting each factor equally. This study reports a habitat suitability map for the endangered Aleutian shield fern using topographical characteristics, which can be used to assist current and future recovery efforts for the species.
Publication type Article
Publication Subtype Journal Article
Title Identifying potential habitat for the endangered Aleutian shield fern using topographical characteristics
Series title Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management
DOI 10.3996/032012-JFWM-023
Volume 3
Issue 2
Year Published 2012
Language English
Publisher U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Publisher location Washington, D.C.
Contributing office(s) Western Ecological Research Center
Description 8 p.
Larger Work Type Article
Larger Work Subtype Journal Article
Larger Work Title Journal of Fish And Wildlife Management
First page 303
Last page 310
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