Cave and Karst Biota Modeling in the Appalachian LCC - Predicted endemics 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组织（Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative）区域内洞穴及喀斯特关联动物类群的分布驱动因子展开，为该研究构建了空间汇总地理信息系统（Geographic Information System, GIS）图层。阿巴拉契亚景观保护合作组织是美国鱼类及野生动物管理局设立的22个公私合营伙伴项目之一，旨在协助制定景观尺度的保护问题解决方案（https://lccnetwork.org/lcc/appalachian）。我们从覆盖美国15个州部分区域的该合作组织区域内的多方渠道，收集了限生于洞穴的陆生及水生洞栖专性物种（troglobiotic species）的出现记录数据。本数据集的出现记录来源于科学文献、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（The Nature Conservancy）。出现记录经位置标注后导入地理信息系统数据库。由于该数据具有敏感性、受数据共享协议约束，且受1988年《联邦洞穴资源保护法》的条款限制，其精确坐标无法对外公开，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。我们将以20×20千米网格分辨率汇总得到的出现记录用于统计建模，以探究可预测洞穴栖居动物类群分布的物理环境因子。本研究针对数据库中所有带有位置坐标的洞穴栖居物种生成了空间汇总信息，涵盖9个作为水陆洞穴群落常见组成类群的动物类群（其中陆生类群5个、水生类群4个）：陆生类群包括步甲科（Carabidae）甲虫、马陆、伪蝎、蜘蛛及弹尾虫；水生类群包括钩虾科（Crangonyctidae）和蜾蠃蜚科（Gammaridae）端足类、潮虫科（Asellidae）等足类、螯虾科（Cambaridae）螯虾以及洞鲈科（Amblyopsidae）鱼类。