 |
Kansas Maps and Gaps Newletter of the Kansas Gap Analysis Project |
 |
|
Kansas Maps and Gaps Newletter of the Kansas Gap Analysis Project |
|
The first day of the meeting was devoted to workshops designed for staff of states that were beginning gap analysis and also novices who planned to attend the technical sessions during the rest of the meeting. Mike Jennings, Director of the Gap Analysis Program, welcomed all participants to the conference on 5 August. Jennings then introduced the first keynote speaker. Dr. Fenn discussed a systematic framework for collecting, analyzing, storing, and disseminating information on species and their habitats. The second keynote speaker, Dr. Pressey, spoke at the annual evening banquet on 5 August. His presentation dealt with priority conservation areas in Australia, practices, principles, and policies. The third keynote speaker, Dr. Jensen, lectured at the GAP luncheon on 6 August. Her topic was the convergent methods in conservation priority setting. The final keynote speaker on the last afternoon of the conference, Dr. Wilcove, discussed the geography and politics of endangered species. In addition to the keynote addresses, concurrent sessions featured information on GAP applications, results, outreach, analysis, land cover, vertebrates, stewardship, regional breakouts, coordination, and institution-building. Poster exhibits were available throughout the meeting illustrating GAP results. Some of the posters can be viewed under the heading of 1997 GAP Conference Posters on the National GAP web page:
Clayton Blogett and Stephen Egbert presented a poster on the status of land cover mapping in Kansas. The title of the poster was "A Multi-Seasonal Approach to Mapping Kansas' Natural Vegetation" and was authored by C. Blodgett, S. Egbert, E. Martinko, K. Price, C. Lauver, A. Stewart, M. Ortega-Huerta, and R. Boyce. Blodgett and Egbert commented that most viewers mentioned the large number of partners involved in KS-GAP.
Glennis Kaufman chaired the Great Plains Regional Breakout Session on the morning of 7 August. This session included participants from Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, and South Dakota. The breakout session began with status reports from each state and was followed by discussions of interest to both land cover and vertebrate participants. The group then split into two sections to discuss problems and successes in the land cover mapping layer and the vertebrate layers, respectively. The land cover group discussed the problems that all Great Plains states are having in mapping grasslands to the alliance level. The vertebrate group discussed mapping the Great Plains vertebrates on a regional basis rather than on a state-by-state basis. Plans were initiated for a Great Plains Regional GAP meeting in Kansas in the autumn. Kaufman, also participated in the Coordinators' meeting on 7 August.
 |
Dr. Edward Martinko, KS-GAP, welcomed the group on Tuesday afternoon and spoke about the programs associated with the Kansas Applied Remote Sensing Program and the Kansas Biological Survey. He then introduced Dr. Glennis Kaufman (KS-GAP) who welcomed the group and provided a short overview of how the first Great Plains Regional GAP meeting came into existence. She then moderated the plenary session which featured two speakers, Mr. Timothy Haithcoat (MO-GAP) and Mr. David Perault (OK-GAP). This session was of interest to both the vertebrate group and the land cover group. Perault's talk was "Vertebrate Models from Oklahoma" and Haithcoat's was "Vertebrate Models from Missouri." Following a discussion period, the group separated into two breakout sessions. Ms. Marla Downing and Ms. Diane Harris, both of EPA-7, discussed quality assurance and quality control issues for the land cover layer in the land cover mapping session. Both Perault and Haithcoat gave informal presentations in the vertebrate session that featured the "nuts and bolts" of how each was modeling the vertebrate layers in their respective state. This lead to a lively question-answer session. Following a very productive afternoon for both breakout sessions, the two groups rejoined to have dinner at a local Italian restaurant.
On Wednesday morning, the meetings began with breakout sessions for the two groups. Within the land cover mapping session, Dr. Marlen Eve (NE-GAP) spoke about the land cover protocols project that he and Dr. James Merchant (NE-GAP) are doing for the National GAP Office. His presentation summarized the statistics for what states are doing for their land cover protocols. Then Dr. Erwin Klass (IA-GAP) provided an update of their cooperative work on wetlands with NRI. The vertebrate breakout session began with status reports from all represented states. These reports resulted in a discussion about which species could or should be mapped or not mapped across the region and what ancillary data sets were available across all states that could be used to increase the precision of the models. One of the results of the discussion was the creation of a regional web site (see below).
The groups came back together for the final morning session which Dr. Stephen Egbert (KS-GAP) moderated. In this session, Eve summarized the issues that were discussed in the land cover breakout sessions, whereas Kaufman summarized the issues discussed by the vertebrate group. Kaufman then introduced the final speaker of the conference, Mr. Patrick Crist of the National GAP Office. He spoke about the importance of regional mapping and modeling in the GAP. Following his presentation, further discussion occurred which included plans for future conferences.
The Great Plains Regional GAP has two web pages associated with its efforts. The MidAmerica Remote Sensing Consortium (MARSC) maintains one for land cover:
and the MidAmerica Vertebrate Resources Information Consortium (MAVRIC) maintains one for vertebrate modeling:
Merchant is the contact person for MARSC and Haithcoat maintains MAVRIC. Both web sites provide project overviews, lists of partners and contacts, state and agency links, and related links. MARSC has a bulletin board where problems, etc. can be posted and answered, whereas MAVRIC is developing pages which include species lists, range information, modeling information, and species habitat information. Because the states within the Great Plains did not start Gap Analysis Projects simultaneously, the information for these pages will come on-line as each state progresses on its project goals.
|
In December, 1997, Drs. Ralph Charlton, Jack Cully, Jr., Glennis Kaufman, Donald Kaufman, and Matt Whiles were awarded funds from the KSARNG to conduct a project entitled "Biotic Inventory to Support Land Condition Trend Analysis for KSARNG Training Area, Salina, Kansas." The two objectives of this project are to conduct comprehensive inventories of all major biotic elements on the area and to implement Land Condition Trend Analysis at the facility. These surveys will include mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians. Surveys will be conducted such that the data for terrestrial vertebrates can be related to the land cover alliances and formations in the Gap Analysis Program. These data will be integrated into the databases for KS-GAP.
Also in December, Glennis Kaufman gave a presentation to the curators of the mammal collections from the Natural History Museum (Dr. Norman Slade and Dr. Robert Timm) and the Sternberg Museum of Natural History (Dr. Jerry Choate). The goals, objectives, participants, and products of the National Gap Analysis Program were presented and she outlined how she planned to map and model the mammals in Kansas. This resulted in a discussion of how a partnership between the museums and KS-GAP could be formed to make the mammal layer better and more useful to them and other cooperators. Currently, the two museums are comparing their location records for consistency to create a high quality database of records. Once this is complete, Kaufman will place these records onto a map that contains the EMAP hexagons. This will allow KS-GAP to produce maps at a finer resolution than is currently available. The two museums have or are actively pursuing records and databases of mammal collections from other colleges and universities in the state. We already have received copies of the databases of mammals in Kansas from the Smithsonian Institution and Field Museum of Natural History. This resulted from the efforts of these partners. We hope to expand this partnership with the museums to include the other terrestrial vertebrates.
|
Work on the vertebrate layer began in Biology at Kansas State University in summer 1997. Three graduate students were hired to assist Dr. Glennis Kaufman and Dr. Jack Cully, Jr. in mapping and modeling the terrestrial vertebrates in Kansas. The current emphasis of the graduate students is to find primary literature on the distributional ranges and habitat associations of each vertebrate species in Kansas. Habitat associations for each species are defined by vegetation and other environmental factors that can be mapped on a statewide basis. This information is placed in a computer program which manages bibliographic references. Currently, around 1,000 citations have been or are ready to be entered into the reference software.
Kaufman also has been working on the lists of "species to be mapped" and "species not to be mapped." Currently, we plan to map those species which are residents year round and also those species which either breed or winter in the state. We also will map "exotic" species that may influence the distributions of native species. Lists have been prepared in a spreadsheet format for mammals, amphibians, and reptiles. The spreadsheets contain species element codes, scientific names, common names, state and federal ranks and status, and type (resident, breeding or wintering species). These species lists have been mailed to our State Scientific Advisory Committee (see below) for their review and comments. The lists of "species to be mapped" and "species not to be mapped" are under preparation for birds. We anticipate mailing bird lists to our advisory committee by the end of March. We have received a number of comments and questions from members of the advisory committee relative to our mailing in late January. Kaufman will make another mailing which should answer some of the questions and concerns in late March.
Currently, a State Scientific Advisory Committee is being formed to assist in the vertebrate layers. The primary function of this committee is to review and comment on products and/or results from the vertebrate modeling layer. Three groups (one for mammals, one for birds, and one for amphibians and reptiles) have been combined to form the committee as a whole. Currently, the membership of the committee represents faculty at state universities and colleges (68%), personnel at state and federal agencies (29%), and other conservationists (3%). Once individuals have agreed to serve on the committee, a list of the members of the State Scientific Advisory Committee will be made available upon request.
Another focus of the vertebrate group was a pilot project with the Geographic Information Systems and Spatial Analysis Laboratory (GISSAL) in Geography at Kansas State University. The project involved constructing a model for one species of mammal, bird, reptile, and amphibian that occurred in the southwest part of the state where the land cover map is completed. Jennifer Radcliff, GISSAL, placed each of the verbal models into a GIS environment. She used the habitat associations for each species to create an algorithm that selected those habitats found in the land cover map created by the Kansas Applied Remote Sensing Program (KARS) at the University of Kansas. Once completed, these models were captured visually on "hardcopy" and colored overheads for display purposes. The species that we modeled were Great Plains narrowmouthed toad (Gastrophryne olivacea; Nicole Gerlanc), lesser earless lizard (Holbrookia maculata; Ray Matlack), scaled quail (Callipepla squamata; Mayee Wong), and northern grasshopper mouse (Onychomys leucogaster; Glennis Kaufman). The results were quite interesting. Some of these results will be exhibited in a poster at the annual meeting of the Kansas Academy of Sciences on April 20th in Wichita. The title of the poster is "KS-GAP: Progress on the Vertebrate Layer in Kansas." The poster is authored by Glennis A. Kaufman, Jack F. Cully, Jr., Raymond S. Matlack, Nicole M. Gerlanc, and Mayee Wong.
Radcliff also has been working with the vertebrate group to label EMAP hexagons for modeling vertebrate distributions. The map of EMAP hexagons will be used by the vertebrate group and scientific advisory committee. As the land cover layer across the state is finished by KARS and range distributions of vertebrates are contained within these areas, results of our mapping and modeling efforts will be sent to members of the advisory committee for their review and comments.
We are continuing to update our bibliographic reference database through literature searches and will begin to build databases of distributional records for each species. Kaufman currently is working with faculty at Sternberg Museum of Natural History at Fort Hays State University and the Natural History Museum at the University of Kansas to obtain distributional records for mammals in Kansas and also in adjacent counties of states that border Kansas. We hope to begin this step with amphibians, reptiles, and birds in the summer or early autumn. Work on the vertebrate layer began in Biology at Kansas State University in summer 1997.
|
The Kansas Applied Remote Sensing Program is continuing its multiseasonal two-stage process for land cover mapping. This process uses two stages, an unsupervised classification and supervised classification. The unsupervised classification separates crop land from other vegetation cover types, whereas supervised classification maps specific vegetation alliances. Approximately two-thirds of the LANDSAT thematic mapper scenes for the state are completed for the unsupervised classification. Along with completing the unsupervised classification for the rest of the state, work also is progressing simultaneously to produce maps for vegetation alliances for additional regions of the state. We anticipate completing the supervised classification for the southwest region of the state this spring. This region will be followed by central, eastern, and northwestern Kansas.
Ellen Ellis collected ground truthing samples during the past summer and early autumn in southwest and east-central Kansas. These sites currently are being used to train the computer for supervised classification of the land cover map in these two areas. A portion of the samples from these sites was not used, but is reserved for later use in accuracy assessment of the maps.
A large amount of field work will be done this summer to complete the collection of field samples for the remainder of the state to be used for supervised classification and accuracy assessment. The field work will be coordinated by Dr. Chris Lauver at the Kansas Biological Survey. Several field botanists and plant ecologists from the KS-GAP will be in the field for the summer season. We are seeking assistance from others who have knowledge of the natural vegetation in their area of the state. We hope to receive assistance from faculty and graduate students at colleges and universities, personnel from cooperating state agencies, and other interested individuals. For more information or to offer your assistance, please call Chris Lauver at 785-864-7691.
|
The Geographic Information Systems and Spatial Analysis Laboratory (GISSAL) in the Department of Geography at Kansas State University is continuing to work on the stewardship layer for KS-GAP. The stewardship layer identifies ownership and management protocols on public lands and lands owned by conservation agencies. Two hundred areas covering portions of 221 USGS 7« minute quadrangles were obtained in "hardcopy" format from the Kansas Biological Survey. Jennifer Radcliff scanned the outlines of these areas into an electronic (digital) environment using hardware available at GISSAL. She then used ARC/INFO software to convert the scanned areas into GIS coverages for each of the mapped polygon boundaries. The stewardship coverages are in the NT/UNIX double precision format. Only 25 known areas still need to be transferred into a digital format. Attributes have been added to the polygons for each of the protected areas. Information included in the attribute tables consists of name, owner, and manager. Currently, information about the management status of each area is being obtained. This information will be added as another attribute for each area. Jennifer also is trying to increase the precision of the data as digital orthophotographs of the protected areas become available. These are used to make minor corrections to the boundaries of water features and to the managed areas themselves.
Jennifer Radcliff also is working on a poster with Dr. Sy Seyler that will be displayed and discussed at the annual meeting of the Association of American Geographers in late March in Boston. This poster also will be on exhibit at the annual meeting of the Kansas Academy of Sciences on April 20th in Wichita. The title of the poster is "Development of a Stewardship Layer for Gap Analysis in Kansas."
|
This article is reprinted from the Gap Analysis Bulletin 6:12-13. 1997.
Mapping the Kansas Grasslands: A Multiseasonal Approach--Stephen Egbert, Chris Lauver, Clayton Blodgett, Kevin Price, and Ed Martinko
Introduction
The extensive grasslands of Kansas dominate the state's natural vegetation. To the west, in the lee of the Rocky Mountains, sparse rainfall generates arid shortgrass prairies, while increased rainfall in the central part of the state yields mixed-grass prairies. To the east, sufficient precipitation occurs to support tallgrass prairie that mixes with oak-hickory deciduous forest in the far eastern part of the state. Most of the grasslands in the western two-thirds of the state are native, having never been plowed, and are primarily used for grazing domestic livestock. In the tallgrass prairie region, grazing is also prevalent, but many grasslands (both tame and native) are managed for hay production. Kansas also contains large acreages of former cropland that are now covered with native and non-native grasses as part of the USDA Conservation Reserve Program (CRP).
According to a recent map of land cover patterns in Kansas (Whistler et al. 1997), the distribution of grasslands is often associated with the moderately-sloping terrain of major and minor drainages, whereas the alluvial river valleys and level-to-gentle upland slopes are used for crop production. However, there are several regions in Kansas that contain relatively intact grassland ecosystems, mainly because of high topographic relief and rocky or sandy soils. These include the famed Flint Hills region with its rolling tallgrass prairie in eastern Kansas that stretches from near the northern border into the Osage Hills in Oklahoma. In the south-central region, Red Hills mixed prairie is found on gypsum hills in a scenic landscape dotted with red cedar trees and caves. Another grassland type, chalkflat mixed prairie, occurs in west-central Kansas along Hackberry Creek and the valleys of the Smoky Hill River. This region is famous for its beautiful erosional remnants of Niobrara chalk. Sand prairie and sandsage shrubland occur in the southwest along extensive sand dunes to the south of the Arkansas and Cimarron Rivers.
Development of a Grassland Classification System for Kansas
In 1989, the Kansas Natural Heritage Inventory of the Kansas Biological Survey (KBS) developed a preliminary statewide vegetation classification to identify and plan protection for exemplary occurrences of Kansas' ecological communities. The classification was based on
examining Kuchler's (1974) potential natural vegetation map in relation to the geology, soils, and physiographic provinces of Kansas. Vegetation types were identified based on variations in physical features (e.g. climate, soils, and topography) that contributed to differences in plant species composition. For example, although sharing the same dominant species, a "northeastern" and "southeastern tallgrass prairie" were formed because of known differences in soil development (i.e. glaciation) and the floristic composition of communities in these areas.
The present grassland classification system used in the Kansas GAP Project and by KBS is a conversion of the 1989 version into the vegetation classification system developed by The Nature Conservancy in cooperation with state, federal, and academic partners (The Nature Conservancy Ecology Working Group 1997). The new classification of the natural vegetation of Kansas (Lauver et al. in prep.) contains 23 grassland community types under 13 different alliances.
Problems Inherent in Mapping Grasslands
Several problems are inherent in attempting to map grassland types using satellite imagery. The first one is the nature of grasses themselves. Individual grass plants are much smaller than trees and shrubs and are below the resolving ability of any commonly used digital or photographic system. Closely related to this is the frequent spatial variation in cover composition within a given grassland type. Unlike crop fields, grassland vegetation is rarely homogeneous unless it has been planted and managed. Each grassland type consists of mixtures of grasses, forbs, and even shrubs. In addition, patches of bare soil often enter the picture, particularly in arid regions. All of these factors create an environment where "pure" pixels are a rarity, and where considerable spectral heterogeneity can be found within a single grassland parcel.
Another issue is that most of the grassland in Kansas is actively managed for agricultural uses, including grazing and haying. Intensity and seasonality or timing of use, especially for grazing, vary widely, depending on the practices of the owner or manager, climatic conditions, and grassland health. Visual inspection of satellite images or air photos often shows clear delineations among land parcels because of differences in grazing intensity. In addition, grassland used for grazing is often burned in the spring to stimulate production.
Hayed grasslands, whether natural or planted, also present challenges because haying practices vary by land owner. From the standpoint of land cover mapping, the biggest concern arising from the intensive human management of grasslands is that spectral variations due to management practices may mask the variations among grassland types and cause unacceptable confusion in land cover maps.
A Multiseasonal Approach
To address the problems outlined above, we have elected to use a multiseasonal two-stage approach to land cover mapping. Using a multiseasonal approach in Finney County in southwest Kansas, we earlier produced excellent results in separating grasslands from croplands and in mapping individual crop types (Egbert et al. 1995). Based on that study, we decided to apply a similar approach to mapping grasslands. For each scene center in Kansas, we acquire three dates of Landsat Thematic Mapper imagery over the growing season: spring, summer, and fall. Our rationale for using this approach is that seasonal differences in plant development vary by species, and using multiple dates of imagery will increase the likelihood of sensing the differences among vegetation types. For example, we have found that when we use July images to classify vegetation in western Kansas, croplands like corn and milo are often spectrally confused with some riparian vegetation types, such as cattail and bulrush marshes. When a spring scene is added, however, the differentiation among the classes is simplified because the corn and milo fields are bare soil at that time of year.
Our methodology employs both unsupervised and supervised classification. Unsupervised classification separates cropland from natural vegetation, while supervised classification is used to map vegetation alliances. In initial processing, the images are georectified and registered to each other. The three images are then combined to form a single multidate image. To reduce the volume of data, only bands 3, 4, 5, and 7 are used from each image, resulting in a 12-band image. The 12-band multidate image then undergoes unsupervised classification using the ISODATA clustering algorithm and a maximum likelihood classifier, creating 100 raw classes. Analysts examine the raw classes and assign them to one of two categories: cropland or non-cropland vegetation. Classes with large percentages of pixels in both categories are placed in a third, confused, class. The confused classes are isolated and undergo a second unsupervised classification in a "cluster-busting" technique (Jensen et al. 1987); the resultant new classes are then assigned to either the cropland or non-cropland categories. The result of the unsupervised classification phase is a map of cropland and non-cropland land cover. This map is used to create an image mask containing only the non-cropland pixels, which is retained for further processing.
Supervised classification is applied to the masked non-cropland pixels to create a map of GAP land cover categories. Representative field sites are collected and labeled by grassland ecologists using images, maps, and GPS receivers. Two- thirds of the sites are used for training the classifier, while the remainder are used for verification. In the accuracy assessment process, the verification sites are used to create contingency tables, and to calculate user's and producer's accuracies, along with KAPPA.
Credits
Land cover mapping for Kansas GAP is being conducted by the Kansas Applied Remote Sensing Program and the Kansas Biological Survey at the University of Kansas in Lawrence, Kansas. Principal investigators for Kansas- GAP land cover mapping are Edward A. Martinko and Kevin Price. Researchers and staff members contributing to Kansas-GAP include Stephen Egbert, Chris Lauver, Clayton Blodgett, Miguel Ortega-Huerta, Ellen Ellis, Aimee Stewart, and Ryan Boyce.
A poster showing a map of the Kansas GAP pilot project and current land cover mapping status can be viewed on the National GAP home page at:
Literature Cited
Egbert, S.L., K.P. Price, M.D. Nellis, and R. Lee. 1995. Developing a land cover modelling protocol for the high plains using multi-seasonal Thematic Mapper imagery. Proceedings, ACSM/ASPRS '95 Annual Convention and Exposition, Charlotte, North Carolina 3:836-845. Jensen, J.R., E.W. Ramsey, H.E. Mackey, E.J. Christensen, and R.R. Shartiz. 1987. Inland wetland change detection using aircraft MSS data. Photogrammetric Engineering and Remote Sensing 53(5): 521-529. Kuchler, A.W. 1974. A new vegetation map of Kansas. Ecology 55: 586-604. Lauver, C.L., K. Kindscher, D. Faber-Langendoen, & R. Schneider. In prep. A classification of the natural vegetation of Kansas. (to be submitted to The Southwestern Naturalist). The Nature Conservancy Ecology Working Group. 1997. International classification of ecological communities: terrestrial vegetation of the United States. The Nature Conservancy, Arlington, VA. (in prep.) UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization). 1973. International classification and mapping of vegetation. Paris, France. 35 pp. Whistler, J.L., M.E. Jakubauskas, S.L. Egbert, E.A. Martinko, D.W. Baumgartner, and R.Y. Lee. 1997. Kansas Land Cover Patterns. Map available from Kansas Geological Survey, Publications Division, 1930 Constant Ave., Lawrence, KS 66047.
|
The Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP) is continuing to provide financial support to KS-GAP for both the land cover and vertebrate layers. Jack Cully and Glennis Kaufman traveled to Lawrence on 30 June to join Ed Martinko, Kevin Price, and Stephen Egbert to present an oral progress report to KDWP. KDWP was represented by Keith Sexson and Steve Adams at this meeting.
Egbert started the meeting by reporting on the progress of the land cover map. Following his presentation, the group moved into the laboratory of the Kansas Applied Remote Sensing Program. Aimee Stewart and Clayton Blodgett illustrated and explained the methods they use to process Landsat thematic mapper scenes. Following a break, Kaufman outlined the steps required to produce vertebrate models. She also explained how the vertebrate layers would be developed in Kansas and integrated with the land cover layer. Oral progress reports will be given to KDWP every six months in lieu of producing a written report for each year of funding. These reports also provide information to KDWP in a more timely fashion. Cully, Kaufman, Martinko, and Price were awarded a second year of funding in July 1997 from KDWP. Again, the award funded work for both the land cover and vertebrate layers. The title for the continued project is "Gap Analysis in Kansas, 1998."
A second oral progress report was given at the offices of KDWP in Topeka on 23 January. Attendees at the meeting were Dr. Steve Williams, Secretary of KDWP, Sexson, Cully, Kaufman, Martinko, Price, and Egbert. Egbert and Price discussed the progress of the land cover layer and other mapping projects of general interest to KDWP. Kaufman presented a brief administrative report which highlighted the new partners in KS-GAP, creation of the Great Plains Regional Vertebrate Group, and changes in personnel within KS-GAP. Kaufman also reported on recent progress in the vertebrate layer in Kansas. She spoke about the rationale in forming a State Scientific Advisory Committee. She showed four maps that illustrated the integration of four vertebrate models with the land cover layer in a pilot project in southwest Kansas.
|
Cully, J., and G. Kaufman. 1997. Kansas: an example of GAP Partnering. Gap Analysis Bulletin, 6:29-31. Egbert, S., C. Lauver, C. Blodgett, K. Price, and E. Martinko. 1997. Mapping the Kansas grasslands: a multiseasonal approach. Gap Analysis Bulletin, 6:12-13. Kaufman, G. A., and D. W. Kaufman. 1997. Ecology of small mammals in prairie landscapes. Pp. 207-243. In Ecology and Conservation of Great Plains Vertebrates (F. L. Knopf and F. B. Samson, eds.), Springer-Verlag, New York. 320 pp. Lauver, Chris L. 1997. Mapping species diversity patterns in the Kansas shortgrass region by integrating remote sensing and vegetation analysis. Journal of Vegetation Science, 8:387-394. Price, K. P., S. L. Egbert, M. D. Nellis, R.-Y. Lee, and R. Boyce. 1997. Mapping land cover in a High Plains agro-ecosystem using a multidate Landsat thematic mapper modeling approach. Transactions of the Kansas Academy of Science, 100:21-33.
|
The 24th annual meeting of the Kansas Herpetological Society (KHS) was an excellent opportunity to introduce area herpetologists to the Kansas Gap Project (KS-GAP). The meeting took place at the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita on November 8-9. Nicole Gerlanc presented a poster co-authored by Glennis Kaufman, Raymond Matlack, Mayee Wong and Jack Cully. The poster's title was "KS-GAP: The Vertebrate Layer in Kansas." The poster laid out the goals of the National Gap Analysis Program and showed examples of distributions for vertebrates that have been mapped in other states. It also outlined the methods for the vertebrate layers in Kansas. The audience for the poster included elementary and secondary science and biology teachers, personnel from Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, zoo professionals, and faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates from area universities. Outreach programs, such as NatureMapping (WA-GAP), were among the topics discussed with members of KHS. This meeting, also provided an opportunity to get input and solicit help from area experts.
Conservation was one of the key themes of the meeting. The keynote speaker, Mr. Rick Hudson from the Fort Worth Zoo, talked about the role of the zoo in the West Indian iguana recovery program. Chris Mammoliti, Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, updated the group on recent law enforcement actions that concern the illegal sale and transport of Kansas herptiles. Another issue discussed was the national amphibian monitoring program.
|
Three graduates students have been hired at Kansas State University to assist with the vertebrate layers for KS-GAP and one graduate student has been hired at the University of Kansas to collect field data and help map the land cover layer. They are Raymond Matlack, Nicole Gerlanc, Mayee Wong, and Ellen Ellis. Ray will be mapping and modeling the snakes, lizards, and terrestrial turtles. Nicole will map and model the amphibians and aquatic turtles, whereas Mayee and another graduate student will process the birds. Ellen, along with Clayton Blodgett, will process thematic mapper scenes.
Ray has had an interest in herps since his childhood. He grew up in Florida and spent his free time observing and capturing anything that moved. Ray currently is working on a Ph.D. degree under the direction of Drs. Donald Kaufman and Glennis Kaufman. His research will examine factors that influence the population dynamics of short-tailed shrews (Blarina hylophaga) in tallgrass prairie. Ray completed his M.S. degree in Biology in 1997 under Dr. Philip Gipson in the Kansas Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit within the Division of Biology at Kansas State University. The title of his Master's thesis was "The Swift Fox in Rangeland and Cropland in Western Kansas: Relative Abundance, Mortality, and Body Size." Ray also completed his B.S. degree in Wildlife Biology at Kansas State University in 1994.
Nicole's interest in amphibians began when she entered graduate school at Kansas State University. Nicole currently is a second-year graduate student working on a M.S. degree under the direction of Dr. Glennis Kaufman. Nicole is examining the effects of breeding pool permanence on developmental rate of western chorus frogs (Pseudacris triseriata) in tallgrass prairie. Nicole completed her B.S. in Biology in 1994 at Purdue University. She had extensive research experience as an undergraduate which included working on the Indipine Watershed Modeling Project. One of her roles in the project involved mapping the tributaries and their characteristics (substrate, riffles, pools, and runs) and recording the animals present.
Mayee's interest in conservation biology likely resulted from field experiences she had before entering the graduate program at Kansas State University. Mayee currently is a first-year graduate student working on a M.S. degree under the direction of Dr. Jack Cully, Jr. Mayee's M.S. research is focused on the genetic structure of greater prairie chicken (Tympanuchus cupido) populations in northern Kansas. In 1994, Mayee completed a B.S. in Ecology, Behavior and Evolution and a B.A. in Biological Anthropology at the University of California at San Diego. Following her degree, she worked as a research assistant on projects studying killer whales at Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute, brown pelicans in Everglades National Park, and yellow-headed Amazonian parrots in Tampico, Mexico.
Ellen's background is diverse in that she has done extensive research in plant ecology and also research on birds and mammals. Ellen received her B.S. in Wildlife Biology in 1989 from Kansas State University. Following the completion of her degree, she was employed by the U.S. Forest Service in California and did surveys of northern spotted owls and California spotted owls, and monitored furbearer photostations. She also worked for the Bureau of Land Management in California and Nevada doing surveys for threatened and endangered plants, roadside raptors, and endangered rodents. She returned to graduate school in the fall of 1994 at the University of Nevada at Reno and completed her M.S. in Natural Resources in 1997. The title of her master's thesis was "Characterizing Patterns of a Western Great Basin Landscape." She currently is a first-year graduate student at the University of Kansas studying for her Ph.D. degree under the direction of Dr. Kevin Price.
Ellen replaces Aimee Stewart and Miguel Ortega-Huerta. Aimee accepted a full-time position with the Kansas Department of Health and Environment in Topeka as a GIS analyst. In her spare time, she continues to work to finish her M.A. degree in Geography at the University of Kansas. Although Miguel remains in the Kansas Applied Remote Sensing Program, he has left the KS-GAP program and currently is funded by a National Science Foundation project to study the potential effects of climate change on biodiversity in Mexico.
|
Dr. Kevin Price, Kansas Applied Remote Sensing (KARS) Program and CoPI for KS-GAP, is doing research in the grassland steppe of Inner Mongolia. He and his colleagues at KARS are collaborating with others from the Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory at Colorado State University, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, the Institute of Resource Sciences at Beijing Normal University, and the Institute of Botany in the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Drs. J. E. Ellis, M. B. Coughenour, K. A. Galvin, C. J. Tucker, and K. P. Price were awarded a 3- year grant from the National Science Foundation's Global Change Research Program in January 1996. The title of the project is "Integrated Assessment of the Effects of Climate and Land Use Change on Ecosystem Dynamics, Stability and Resilience on the Mongolian Steppe." The objectives of this study are to examine annual climatic variation and its influence on the phenology of the grassland steppes of Inner Mongolia. This collaborative program aims to create an integrated assessment methodology for research on the interactive effects of climate and land use on land cover, ecosystem state, and human welfare on east Asian steppes. KARS is responsible for examining the relationships between remotely-sensed data and biophysical factors on the ground.
Price and his colleagues at Colorado State University presented two posters at the Land Use Transects in Eastern Asia (LUTEA) meetings in Beijing China on March 2-5, 1998. The titles of the two poster were "Annual Variability of Inner Mongolian Grassland Phenology as Influenced by Climate" and "Integrated Assessment of Climate, Land Use And Land Cover on The Mongolian Steppe."
|
This article is reprinted from the Gap Analysis Bulletin 6:29-31. 1997.
Kansas: An Example of GAP Partnering--Jack Cully and Glennis Kaufman
"I would encourage us to restore the use of the word "partner" in describing the agencies and individuals with whom we work. I admit that like most good words, "partner" has been overworked and trivialized in recent years. Yet it conveys the sense of collaboration, colleagueship, and mutuality of goals and responsibilities that should mark our relationships with others. It is a way of seeing ourselves that I would prefer to cultivate. "Clients" and "customers" encourage a self-image that is not good for the long- term health of our scientific enterprise. Consulting firms have clients and profit-making businesses have customers (TQM notwithstanding). To the extent that words create a self-image and self-images have a way of becoming self-fulfilling, I encourage you to encourage us to worry a bit about such matters."--(James Kushlan, Director, USGS Patuxent Wildlife Research Center)
When Mike Scott visited Kansas before establishing a Gap Analysis project (KS-GAP) here, we were impressed by his description of the potential for the GAP to provide a catalyst for partnerships across the state. GAP provides a research program for university scholars in geography, wildlife biology, botany, and landscape ecology. The value to wildlife management agencies, both state and federal, is obvious. In addition, land cover mapping is useful to state health agencies, water departments, and the departments of agriculture to understand movement patterns of disease vectors, water, and agricultural chemicals. Other state and federal agencies need information about the distribution of biological resources early in their planning processes to keep from running afoul of environmental regulations.
At the beginning, we were faced with some pragmatic choices about how to organize KS-GAP. The Coop Unit, which took the lead in Kansas, was interested in modeling vertebrate distributions, but did not have the level of expertise in remote sensing, geographic information systems, or plant community distributions present elsewhere in the state. Our first decision was to involve people with the greatest skill levels on each topic that were available statewide, rather than to retain the entire project at the Coop Unit, or even at Kansas State University (KSU). Once that decision was made, the truly difficult decisions were to choose among the highly qualified programs and individuals at the state's universities.
The Kansas Biological Survey (KBS) at the University of Kansas houses the Kansas State Heritage Program and the Kansas Applied Remote Sensing Laboratory (KARS). The two programs at KBS recently had completed another statewide mapping project of a level 1 classification of cover types. Although that project only distinguished among six cover classes, the scale was at the pixel level, and the exercise provided valuable experience for the KS-GAP project that was to come. In addition, Dr. Kevin Price, Acting Associate Director at KARS, and his colleagues recently had developed multitemporal analysis techniques that yielded very high accuracy to discriminate between agricultural fields and native vegetation, and among agricultural crop types. Because of their previous experience with a statewide remote sensing mapping project and our desire to use KS-GAP to support and develop new techniques for land cover classification, we were delighted to have KBS as partners to develop the land cover classification map.
The Geographic Information Systems and Spatial Analysis Laboratory (GISSAL) at KSU has demonstrated excellence in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) through its development of a statewide soil map. GISSAL is part of the Department of Geography, under the direction of Drs. H. L. (Sy) Seyler and John Harrington. GISSAL is responsible for developing the GIS system and the land stewardship layer. Both KARS and GISSAL are members of the State GIS Policy Board, which oversees maintenance and distribution of digital data in Kansas.
The three production entities involved in KS-GAP are Kansas State University's Division of Biology, which includes the Coop Unit, the KSU Geography Department, which houses GISSAL, and the University of Kansas, which is the home of KBS. An underestimated benefit of distributing the project among these entities was that each came into KS-GAP with a preestablished set of partnerships. The Coop Unit is linked through its cooperative agreements with the university, USGS-BRD, and the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks (KDWP). Our involvement automatically involved those three entities as partners. The GISSAL has close ties to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the State GIS Policy Board. The KBS has close links with NASA, EPA, KDWP, and the State GIS Policy Board. Work that was ongoing with all of these entities automatically became part of KS-GAP.
During the first year of KS-GAP, we recognized the need to hire a coordinator to maintain communication among the producers, as well as to continue contact with existing partners and to develop new partnerships. Dr. Glennis Kaufman, from the Division of Biology, was hired into this position in December 1995. Her first priority was to develop additional partnerships to support KS-GAP. We were helped in these efforts by the fact that the new Secretary of Wildlife and Parks, Dr. Steve Williams, was very interested in incorporating a computer-based GIS management database such as KS-GAP for resource management within his agency. His office offered to set up a series of meetings with high-level individuals from other potentially interested Kansas agencies. As a result of those meetings, we developed additional partnerships and received financial support from the State Water Office, the GIS Policy Board, and KDWP.
Once KS-GAP was underway and began to produce some products that could be used to show what gap analysis will provide, we found a very powerful tool in helping to develop new projects with potential partners. For example, we recently began discussions with the Kansas Army National Guard to develop a habitat and wildlife monitoring program for one of their training areas. Our discussions with them were proceeding nicely, but they became genuinely excited when we showed poster material from KS-GAP that could enhance their program and invited them to participate in KS- GAP. We expect many future relationships to benefit similarly when we show people how they can meet their needs in unexpected ways by becoming partners in KS-GAP. Many of the organizations we have dealt with have multiple land holdings in Kansas, and although their initial interests are often at a single site, gap analysis offers them an opportunity to anticipate future planning needs at all of their Kansas sites. This provides a strong incentive for agencies to become involved.
There also is a snowball effect. As more organizations become involved in KS-GAP, it becomes easier for additional groups to believe in the usefulness of gap analysis. Also, as more groups begin to use these products for their planning, we expect the GIS data to become a de facto lingua franca among land managing agencies. As Gap Analysis projects move along and more and more groups become involved, it becomes ever easier to establish partnerships.
Several things existed within Kansas from the beginning that predisposed it to partnerships that might not be present in other states. First, there was a pre-existing interest in digital data and GIS technology among numerous agencies in Kansas. Second, we had two organizations, KBS and GISSAL, with statewide mapping experience as well as their respective suites of partners. Third, we were fortunate that the Secretary of Wildlife and Parks came into his position with a clear understanding of how a program like Gap Analysis could benefit his agency.
We believe that in order to develop successful partnerships for Gap Analysis we all need to be opportunistic. If you can find agencies that are interested, it is important to get them involved even if they have little or no money to contribute. As more partners refer to Gap Analysis in interagency discussions, you will find more and more people coming to you, but the initial involvement among planners is critical. We all want our products to be useful and, we believe, the best way to realize those wishes is to involve as many partnerships as possible early in project development.
|
Kansas GAP considered using aerial videography to assist development of the land cover layer, but has decided it will not be useful for Kansas. Our decision was based largely on interactions with individuals involved in Texas GAP (TX-GAP) and on our review of a video sample of grasslands. We had hoped to use aerial videography to decrease the amount of work and dollars needed to collect data from ground sampling sites. We hoped to use these data for supervised classification training and for accuracy assessment of land cover maps.
We reviewed a video sample sent to us from TX-GAP. We focused our attention on grassland and grass-shrub vegetation cover types. We found that the color aerial videography would not provide the necessary spectral resolution to delineate alliances in the Kansas grasslands. Although aerial videography is being used successfully by some state GAP projects for both mapping and ground verification, our examination of these results shows that these states primarily have been mapping woodland and forest alliances and formations rather than grasslands. Unless a major, cost-effective, breakthrough occurs in the area of aerial videography, we plan to collect data from ground-based sampling sites.
|
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) continues to support KS-GAP. NASA has provided in-kind support through the purchase of LANDSAT thematic mapper imagery from the USGS EROS Data Center in Sioux Falls, SD. The mapping methodology for the land cover layer adopted by the Kansas Applied Remote Sensing Program uses the seasonal phenology of the vegetation to separate crop land and natural vegetation as well as types of natural vegetation. Therefore, three images are required per path-row scene center. A total of 48 images instead of 16 images is needed to cover the state of Kansas.
NASA recently agreed to purchase the remaining 21 images to complete the imagery data set for Kansas. This represents a financial commitment of $20,000 for this purchase alone. If KS-GAP would have had to purchase this imagery at full list price from EOSAT, the images would have cost more than $61,000. NASA has been a significant partner to KS-GAP in promoting the land cover mapping in Kansas.
|
|
Jack Cully and Glennis Kaufman were among ten individuals who took a 3-day course in ARCVIEW at Kansas State University 19-21 May. The course, taught by Bibiana Kamler, a certified ARCVIEW instructor, provided the basics of ARCVIEW. It also offered valuable hands-on experience that will be useful in gap analysis and other related projects.
The swift fox (Vulpes velox) historically has been associated with short-grass and mid-grass prairies in the Great Plains. Ray Matlack, a Ph.D. student in the Division of Biology at Kansas State University and KS-GAP, studied the swift fox in croplands and rangelands in western Kansas for his M.S. degree.
Numbers of swift foxes have declined recently in the northern Great Plains. This reduction in foxes may be due to the conversion of rangelands and prairies to row-crop agriculture. In 1994-1995, Matlack examined abundance, body size, and mortality of swift foxes. He radio-collared foxes so that he could locate and study individuals. He completed his thesis in 1997.
Matlack found no differences in abundance or survival of foxes that lived on rangelands and croplands. However, he found that swift foxes were more likely to die from coyote predation and from collisions with traffic on roads in rangelands than in croplands. Foxes were more likely to die of non-traumatic causes such as starvation, parasites, or disease in croplands. Foxes on rangelands were larger and in better condition than foxes on croplands. Matlack's work suggested a link between body condition and non-traumatic mortality for foxes living on croplands.
This study was supported by the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act through the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks.
|
Kansas State University, Division of Biology, Kansas Geographic Information Systems and Spatial Analysis Lab
Jack Cully, Jr. serves as the Principal Investigator (PI) on the KS-GAP project and is the Assistant Unit Leader of Wildlife for the KS CFWRU and an Assistant Professor in the Division of Biology. Glennis Kaufman is a co-PI on the KS-GAP project and serves as the State Coordinator for KS-GAP. She is a Research Assistant Professor in the Division of Biology and a Senior Scientist on the Konza Prairie Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) project. H. L. (Sy) Seyler is the Director of the Geographic Information Systems and Spatial Analysis Lab (GISSAL) and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography. John Harrington, Jr. is the Associate Director of GISSAL and a Professor in the Department of Geography. Raymond Matlack and Nicole Gerlanc are graduate research assistants in the Division of Biology. Mayee Wong is a graduate research assistant in KS CFWRU within the Division of Biology. Jennifer Radcliff is graduate research assistant in GISSAL and the Department of Geography.
University of Kansas, Kansas Biological Survey, Kansas Applied Remote Sensing Program
Ed Martinko is a co-PI on the KS-GAP project, Director of the KBS and the KARS Program, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Systematics and Ecology. Kevin Price is a co-PI on the KS-GAP project, Associate Director of the KARS Program, and an Associate Professor in the Department of Geography. Stephen Egbert is a Research Associate in the KARS Program. Chris Lauver is an Associate Scientist in the KBS. Clayton Blodgett and Ellen Ellis are graduate research assistants in KARS and the Department of Geography.
If you have questions about KS-GAP, contact:
Glennis Kaufman
Division of Biology
Ackert Hall
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS 66506-4901
Phone: 785-532-6622 Fax: 785-532-6653
Email: GKAUFMAN@KSU.EDU
[an error occurred while processing this directive]