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Upper Tennessee Aquatic Gap Analysis Project
 GIS and Remote Sensing
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Abstract
Goal:
To conduct a gap analysis for selected components of the aquatic fauna of the upper Tennessee River drainage (USGS HU 0601).

Objectives:
Build a spatially explicit GIS compatible with existing GAP products; layers to be built include habitat types, species occurrence, and site-specific protection status.

Develop models to predict species occurrence among stream reaches; modeled species include all mussels, crayfishes, fishes, and aquatic amphibians and reptiles.

Test the reliability of species-occurrence models.

Compare spatial patterns of centers of diversity among the five major taxa.

Develop a protocol to rank risk to aquatic fauna among stream reaches.
Status
In Progress
Cooperators
Virginia Tech - USGS Cooperative Research Unit
Sponsors
Products
Anticipated

1) Maps of predicted distributions of all species of mussels, crayfishes, fishes, and aquatic amphibians and reptiles in the upper Tennessee River drainage

2) Maps of species richness for each major taxon for the upper Tennessee River drainage

3) Map of risk to aquatic fauna, by watershed, for the upper Tennessee River drainage

4) Ranking of sources of risk to each aquatic species in the upper Tennessee River drainage (based on cumulative risks over all reaches where presence is predicted).

5) A framework to guide future aquatic gap analyses, including a) protocol for building species-occurrence models from coarse-resolution data, b) test of species-occurrence model reliability, and c) protocol for assessing protection status of aquatic sites.

6) QA/QC on the stream network ensuring that it can be used for future network modeling efforts.

7) Updated aquatic species databases for the project area.

GIS Products Available

Poster presented at the 2003 National Gap Analysis Conference in Fort Collins, Colorado
titled “Applying Threat Assessment to the Gap Analysis Approach in Aquatic Systems”
Contacts
Dr. Paul L. Angermeier, Associate Professor, Assistant Leader, Cooperative Research Unit
Scott D. Klopfer, Conservation Management Institute