Cave and Karst Biota Modeling in the Appalachian LCC - Predicted endemics in all 20km grid cells in karst

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组织（Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative）区域内影响洞穴与喀斯特关联动物群分布的驱动因子展开分析，我们为此构建了地理信息系统（Geographic Information System, GIS）空间汇总图层。该合作组织是美国鱼类及野生动物管理局（United States Fish and Wildlife Service）设立的22个公私合作项目之一，旨在助力制定景观尺度的保护问题解决方案（https://lccnetwork.org/lcc/appalachian）。我们从覆盖15个州部分区域的阿巴拉契亚景观保护合作组织区域内的多种来源，收集了洞穴专性陆生与水生洞栖物种（troglobiotic）的出现记录数据。这些出现记录的来源包括科学文献、现有生物多样性数据库、作者个人记录、博物馆馆藏标本、各州自然遗产项目，以及大自然保护协会（The Nature Conservancy，仅田纳西州数据由其提供）。所有出现记录均通过地理位置标识，并导入GIS数据库。由于信息敏感性、数据共享协议以及1988年《联邦洞穴资源保护法》（Federal Cave Resources Protection Act of 1988）的相关限制，精确坐标无法公开，因此我们采用粗粒度20×20千米矢量网格对数据进行空间汇总。我们将经20×20千米网格分辨率汇总的上述出现记录用于统计建模，以解析可预测洞穴栖居动物分布的环境物理因子。我们为数据库中所有带有定位坐标的洞穴栖居物种构建了空间汇总图层，涵盖陆生与水生洞穴群落的9个常见动物类群：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（钩虾科Crangonyctidae与蜾蠃蜚科Gammaridae）、等足类（潮虫科Asellidae）、螯虾科（Cambaridae）物种以及隐棘鳚科（Amblyopsidae）鱼类。