Integrating Spatially Explicit Indices of Abundance and Habitat Quality: An Applied Example for Greater Sage-grouse Management

This study provides timely and highly useful information about greater sage-grouse over a large area of the Great Basin. USGS researchers and their colleagues created a template for combining landscape-scale occurrence or abundance data with habitat selection data in order to identify areas most critical to sustaining populations of species of conservation concern. The template also identifies those areas where land use changes have minimal impact. To inform greater sage-grouse conservation planning, the researchers developed greater sage-grouse habitat management categories based on habitat selection indices (HSI) and greater sage-grouse abundance and space-use index (AUI). When integrated, these two information layers can delineate where prime grouse habitat overlaps with highest grouse abundance, and thus identify areas of conservation priority. The methodology was initially presented in USGS Open-File Report Spatially explicit modeling of greater sage-grouse habitat in Nevada and northeastern CaliforniaA decision-support tool for management (OFR 2014-1163). The journal article showcases using more than 35,500 independent telemetry locations of over 1,600 sage-grouse tagged and studied over 15 years across 12 subregions in Nevada and northeastern California (excluding the Bi-State). The researchers then applied this information to spatially-explicit management scenarios in order to provide example maps of areas of conservation priority, i.e., Core Areas, Priority Areas, General Areas, and Non-Habitat Areas.