KY-GAP

Vertebrate Distribution Mapping Component

of the Kentucky Gap Analysis Project

Funded by:
Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources and the United States Geological Survey

The Kentucky GAP Project was a five year project with the following goals:

to provide maps of known confidence that predict the distributions of terrestrial vertebrates in Kentucky in order to support analysis of the conservation status of vertebrate species
develop a database of locational records, geographic range, wildlife habitat associations, and predicted distributions of each vertebrate species for the long-term utility of the Kentucky Department of Fish and wildlife Resources and its cooperators.

Howard Whiteman, Matt Cole, Adam Smith and I worked closely with the Land Cover team headed by Tom Kind at the Mid-America Remote Sensing Center at MSU as we conducted the vertebrate mapping portion of the GAP project for Kentucky.


Matt Cole (right) and Terry Derting in Frankfort for a KY-GAP meeting (left photo); Steve Thomas (left) of the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources helps review the predicted distributions of mammal

View Powerpoint Presentations from the Vertebrate Component
of the Kentucky Gap Project

	Analysis of species richness in Kentucky
	Relationships between abiotic factors and species richness in Kentucky
	Accuracy assessment of the predicted species distributions
	Use of KY-GAP data to evaluate conservation and wildlife management areas

STEPS INVOLVED IN PRODUCING PREDICTED VERTEBRATE SPECIES DISTRIBUTIONS

ACCURACY ASSESSMENT
OF THE PREDICTED SPECIES DISTRIBUTIONS

The accuracy of the predicted maps was first assessed by comparing the predicted occurrence of species with species checklists obtained from the four validation areas shown above and from the Breeding Bird Survey Routes. The target level of agreement was 80%, as established by the National GAP program.

The accuracy of the predicted species distributions was also assessed by comparing the predicted distributions with confirmed locational records obtained from various databases in Kentucky.

CONCLUSIONS:

The predicted species distributions produced through the KY-GAP project have a high level of accuracy. In each taxa, low accuracy was associated primarily with species that depend on aquatic habitats.

Users of the predicted distributions need to consider the results of the accuracy assessment prior to use of a distribution for any species.