• Home
  • About
  • Data & Tools
  • Learning
  • In Action
  • Resources
  • Contact

Regional Connectivity and Marsh Migration

Regional Connectivity and Marsh Migration

Best opportunities to maintain regional connections and connect tidal marshes to adjacent uplands.

 

  • Access Datasets

    View or download the Regional Connectivity and Marsh Migration dataset

  • Watch webinar

    View a previously recorded webinar that walks through basic information about the Regional Connectivity and Marsh Migration dataset

  • Quick start guide

    A downloadable PDF that provides an overview of the Regional Connectivity and Marsh Migration dataset

Quick start guide

Description
Intended uses
Description
Terrestrial and wetland connectivity areas are relatively intact places that, if protected, will continue to support a broad diversity of fish, wildlife, plants, and the ecosystems on which they depend. There are three types of connectivity that are analyzed in this project: “core to core” connectivity, “regional flow,” and marsh migration corridors. The connectors are designed to allow the movement of animals and plants from natural core area to natural core area and across the landscape into the future.  Please see the “Cores and Connector” document for more information on the core connectors.

Collectively, core areas, connectors, and road-bounded natural blocks provide a network of resilient and intact ecosystems that will support biodiversity and natural processes under changing conditions and climate.

 

In addition to the core connectors there are three other data sets that support connectivity of natural intact areas:

 

  • Regional Flow:
    • A particularly useful feature of the wall-to-wall permeability results is that they reveal basic patterns in current flow that reflect how the human modified landscape is spatially configured. Thus you can identify where population movements and potential range shifts may become concentrated or where they are well dispersed, and it is possible to quantify the importance of a area by measuring how much flow passes through it, and how concentrated that flow is. The results can be used to identify important pinch points where movements are predicted to concentrate, or diffuse intact areas that allow for more random movements.
    • The 2 categories (out of the four prevalent flow types) displayed in this map are:
      • Diffuse flow: areas that are extremely intact and consequently facilitate high levels of dispersed flow that spreads out to follow many different and alternative pathways. The conservation strategy is to keep these areas intact and prevent the flow from becoming concentrated. This might be achievable through land management or broad scale conservation easements.
      • Concentrated flow: areas where large quantities of flow are concentrated through a narrow area. Because of their importance in maintaining flow across a larger network these pinch points are good candidates for land conservation.

 

  • Marsh Migration
    • Based on an analysis done by NOAA, this data shows marsh migration zones at various sea level rise scenarios from 0-6’.
Intended uses
Areas of connectivity can be viewed as among the best places to start for protection of lands and waters in their natural states. Example applications include:

  • Promoting stewardship by private landowners to sustain the ecological value of their properties
  • Informing strategic acquisition of parcels by public or nonprofit organizations.

 

The same strategies can be applied to connectors and supporting landscapes. The core-connector network provides context for understanding the ecological importance of areas in the Northeast region.
Organizations can consider regional context along with with other information when setting their own conservation priorities. Areas where core areas coincide with other priorities identified through the RCOA package (e.g., Aquatic Core Networks and RSGCN habitats), as well as state and local priorities, may be especially promising locations for conservation action.

Data downloads

Connectivity
Marsh Migration Zones, Northeast U.S.OpenDownload
Regional Flow, Anthropogenic Resistance (Simplified Categories), Eastern U.S. and CanadaOpenDownload
Nature's Network Conservation Design
Imperiled Species
Terrestrial and Wetland Core-Connector Network
Aquatic Core Networks
Regional Connectivity and Marsh Migration
Prioritization Tool

Photos courtesy: USFWS, Nicholas A. Tonelli

  • Home
  • About
  • Data & Tools
  • Learning
  • In Action
  • Resources
  • Contact

Welcome to the Nature's Network Prioritization Tool

Using this tool, you can create custom models based on a catalog of over 400 metrics that will help address particular conservation and restoration questions. Some key features:

  • Quickly create custom prioritization maps
  • PDF and CSV outputs
  • Over 400 metrics

Metric description

Name:

Description:

Unit:

Full documentation link:

How does this work?

Load a model

What do these weights mean?

Each weight is a multiplier

When deciding how to assign weights, it is important to understand that each weight is a multiplier for its coresponding metric. After the tool standardizes the raw units of a metric to a quantile scale (0-1), it then multiplies that new value by the given weight. Any negative weight is flipped to a positive number and multiplied by the inverse of the metric's quantile score (this is to ensure a positive weighted score that is more intuitive for comparison). For more information, click "How does this work?" in the first panel above.

Caution

Use this control with a single map

This control limits the display of both the left and right maps. However, because the maps share the same legend, it can be difficult to distinguish them when parts of each are transparent. To avoid confusion, we recommend that this subset control be used when displaying a single map.

May not be useful for datasets with a small range or limited sample size

Each rank represents the percent of planning units less than or equal to this rank. As a result, for datasets with very small range (e.g. count of restoration practices in a single year) or limited sample size, there may be many planning units that share the same value (e.g., 0). In some of those cases, the minimum percentile rank could be relatively high and the subset controls may not seem to have an effect. If this appears to be happening, try clicking on a planning unit with a low score color to see what its percentile rank is.

Metric list