U.S. Geological Survey - Gap Analysis Project Species Range Maps CONUS_2001

GAP species range data are coarse representations of the total areal extent a species occupies, in other words the geographic limits within which a species can be found (Morrison and Hall 2002). These data provide the geographic extent within which the USGS Gap Analysis Project delineates areas of suitable habitat for terrestrial vertebrate species in their species' habitat maps. The range maps are created by attributing a vector file derived from the 12-digit Hydrologic Unit Dataset (USDA NRCS 2009). Modifications to that dataset are described here. Attribution of the season range for each species was based on the literature and online sources (See Cross Reference section of the metadata). Attribution for each hydrologic unit within the range included values for origin (native, introduced, reintroduced, vagrant), occurrence (extant, possibly present, potentially present, extirpated), reproductive use (breeding, non-breeding, both) and season (year-round, summer, winter, migratory, vagrant). These species range data provide the biological context within which to build our species distribution models. Versioning, Naming Conventions and Codes: A composite version code is employed to allow the user to track the spatial extent, the date of the ground conditions, and the iteration of the data set for that extent/date. For example, CONUS_2001v1 represents the spatial extent of the conterminous US (CONUS), the ground condition year of 2001, and the first iteration (v1) for that extent/date. In many cases, a GAP species code is used in conjunction with the version code to identify specific data sets or files (i.e. Cooper's Hawk Habitat Map named bCOHAx_CONUS_2001v1_HabMap).