Cave and Karst Biota Modeling in the Appalachian LCC - Predicted psuedoscorpions in sampled 20km grid cells

We developed spatial summary (GIS) layers for a study of factors influencing the distribution of cave and karst associated fauna within the Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative region, one of 22 public-private partnerships established by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service to aid in developing landscape scale solutions to conservation problems (https://lccnetwork.org/lcc/appalachian). We gathered occurrence data on cave-limited terrestrial and aquatic troglobiotic species from a variety of sources within the Appalachian LCC region covering portions of 15 states. Occurrence records were developed from the scientific literature, existing biodiversity databases, personal records of the authors, museum accessions, state Natural Heritage programs, and The Nature Conservancy (for Tennessee). Occurrence records were identified by location and translated into a GIS database. Although the precise locations cannot be made public due the sensitivity of the information, data sharing agreements, and restrictions under the Federal Cave Resources Protection Act of 1988, we summarized the data spatially using a coarse 20x20km vector grid. We used these occurence records, summarized at the 20x20km grid resolution in statistical modeling to examine physical factors predictive of cave dwelling fauna. Spatial summaries were developed for all cave dwelling species in our database where we had location coordinates for nine faunal groups (five terrestrial and four aquatic) that are common components of terrestrial and aquatic cave communities: ground beetles (Carabidae), millipedes, pseudoscorpions, spiders, and springtails for terrestrial species groups, and amphipods (Crangonyctidae and Gammaridae), isopods (Asellidae), crayfishes (Cambaridae), and fishes (Amblyopsidae) for aquatic species groups.

本研究针对阿巴拉契亚景观保护合作区（Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative）内洞穴与喀斯特关联动物的分布影响因子展开，构建了空间汇总地理信息系统（Geographic Information System, GIS）图层。该合作区是美国鱼类及野生动物管理局设立的22个公私合营项目之一，旨在助力制定景观尺度的保护问题解决方案（https://lccnetwork.org/lcc/appalachian）。研究团队从覆盖美国15个州部分区域的阿巴拉契亚景观保护合作区（Landscape Conservation Cooperative, LCC）范围内的多种渠道，收集了洞穴专性陆生与水生洞栖生物的出现数据。这些出现记录的来源涵盖科学文献、现有生物多样性数据库、作者个人存档记录、博物馆馆藏标本、各州自然遗产项目，以及田纳西州的大自然保护协会。研究人员按空间点位对所有出现记录进行定位，并将其导入GIS数据库。鉴于此类信息的敏感性、数据共享协议以及1988年《联邦洞穴资源保护法》的相关限制，精确点位无法对外公开，因此我们采用粗粒度20×20千米矢量格网对数据进行空间汇总。随后，我们将以20×20千米格网分辨率汇总的出现记录用于统计建模，以探究可预测洞穴栖居动物分布的物理环境因子。本数据库中具备位置坐标的所有洞穴栖居物种均被构建了空间汇总图层，这些物种隶属于9个常见的洞穴陆生与水生群落类群：陆生类群包括步甲科（Carabidae）甲虫、马陆、伪蝎、蜘蛛及弹尾虫；水生类群包括端足类（Crangonyctidae与Gammaridae）、等足类（Asellidae）、螯虾科（Cambaridae）螯虾及洞鲈科（Amblyopsidae）鱼类。