GIS 1 Mini-Term Project

GIS 1 Mini-Term Project

Goals and Background:

          The main objective of this mini-term project was to ask a spatial question for an area of interest and generate criteria to solve the problem. The purpose was to use all that I have learned in GIS 1 in answering my question. My spatial question was this - where in Wisconsin would be an ideal area for establishing a protected pollinator zone? To answer this question, I decided to combine the range of the Karner blue butterfly and habitat of the rusty-patched bumble bee - two endangered pollinators. Thus, the resulting areas (preferably the largest) could be designated as a protected zone for these two pollinators.

Methods:

           After researching the rusty-patched bumble bee and the Karner blue butterfly, I was able to get a sense of what types of environments they would most likely be found in. The rusty-patched bumble bee lived in tallgrass prairies that held species labeled as warm-season grasses. The Karner blue butterfly is found in the northern ranges of the wild blue lupine. However, their population is extremely broken up and scattered. The Karner blue butterfly had the largest population and range so I focused on generating suitable habitat for the rusty-patched bumble bee.

            First, I convert the Wiscland 2 – level 4 raster data into polygons with a conversion tool. This way, I could use the other analysis tools. After the tool operation was complete, I selected by attributes from the layer warm-seasoned grasses. This is where the bee could be found. I exported the selected data to my mini-term folder for later use called warm-season grasses. Next, I selected by attributes from the land cover vector data again, this time selecting all the attributes that are categorized as agricultural land, including pastures that were under grasslands. I exported the selected attributes to my folder and called it agriculture.

            I then used the buffer tool to create a 750 ft. buffer around the agriculture feature class I had previously created because that is the approximate maximum distance pesticides can drift by wind from their intensive use in agricultural lands. Pesticides might not be intended for bees but they are nonetheless very harmful to them. I called the output agriculture_buffer. Once completed, I used the erase tool to erase the warm-season grasses that were within the agriculture_buffer so they would not be included in the potential protected zone. I called the output bee_habitat.

            Next, I selected by attributes high development areas from the land cover vector layer and exported these features as a feature class called high_development. Then, I used the buffer tool to create a one-mile buffer around the high_development layer, called high_development_buffer. This is because intensive development can’t cause habitat fragmentation. In addition, I wanted to account for future expansion of these areas and I didn’t want that to come into conflict with the protected zone. I used the erase tool to erase bee_habitat that was within the high_development_buffer to get suitable_bee_habitat.

            With the Wisconsin County Boundaries layer, I selected by attributes the counties that fall within the Karner blue butterfly range and exported the selected features as karner_range. I intersected this new layer with suitable_bee_habitat to get pollinator_zones, as we are looking for bee habitat within the butterfly range.

            Looking through the attribute table of pollinator zones, I find out that the largest pollinator zone is in Portage County. I select by attributes from the counties layer Portage County and export the feature (called Portage_county). I clip pollinator_zones to Portage_county to get pollinator_zones within the county, called Portage_pollinator_zones. I selected by attributes the largest area of the new feature class and exported the data as protected_pollinator_zone. I projected the new feature class to the appropriate projection NAD 1983 HARN Wisconsin. The new projected feature class, called final_protected_pollinator_zone. Then, I create a 750 ft. buffer around the final_protected_pollinator_zone intended to show an area for restricted pesticide use.

            Lastly, cities and major roads data sets were clipped to the Portage_county layer and projected to match the final_protected_pollinator_zone. The entire process is documented below (Figure 1). Finally, I created a cartographically pleasing of my results (Figure 2) including a locator map (Figure 3).

      Figure: A Workflow Model of the steps taken to complete this project.

Results:

           The largest area that of suitable rusty-patched bumble bee habitat that was found within the Karner blue butterfly range was in Portage County (Figure 2). It’s a large area, but the fragmentation of habitat is partially responsible for the species’ decline in the first place. The restricted pesticide buffer was placed to prevent drift from killing the pollinators from inside the zone. It is 750 ft. from any agricultural lands and at least a mile from any high development areas to prevent contact with potentially expanding urban areas and future conflicts from that. The locator map (Figure 3) shows the Karner blue butterfly range (mostly central Wisconsin) and Portage county where the pollinated protection zone is located.

                      Figure 2: A potential area to designate as a protected pollinator zone in Portage County, WI for the preservation of the rusty-patched bumble bee and the Karner blue butterfly. A 750 ft. buffer was placed around the zone that indicates restricted pesticide use in the area for the further protection of its interior.

                            Figure 3: A Locator map showing the Karner blue butterfly range and Portage County, where the largest area of suitable bee habitat was found within the butterfly range.

Sources:

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services (2017). Fact Sheet: Rusty Patched Bumble Bee (Bombus affinis). Retrieved from https://www.fws.gov/midwest/endangered/insects/rpbb/factsheetrpbb.html.

Hatfield, R., Jepsen, S., Thorp, R., Richardson, L., Colla, S., Foltz Jordan, S. & Evans, E. (2015). Bombus affinis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Retrieved from http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/44937399/0.

Thorp, R.; Evans, E.; Jepsen, S.; Black, S.H. (n.d.). Bumble bees: rusty patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis). Retrieved from http://xerces.org/rusty-patched-bumble-bee/.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services (2017). Karner Blue Butterfly: Fact Sheet Retrieved from https://www.fws.gov/midwest/endangered/insects/kbb/kbb_fact.html

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. (2017) Karner Blue Federal High Potential Range (Karner Blue Federal High Potential Range). Retrieved from http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/endangeredresources/animals.asp?mode=detail&speccode=okarnfhpr1.

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. (2016). Wiscland 2 – Level 4. Retrieved from ftp://dnrftp01.wi.gov/geodata/landcover/wiscland2/.

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. (2014). Roads Wisconsin (U.S. Census) 2010. (2014). Retrieved from http://maps.sco.wisc.edu/opengeoportal/.

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. (2008). Wisconsin County Boundaries. Retrieved from geogsql.uwec.edu.

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.  (2014). WiDNR2014.DBOWI_state_outline. Retrieved from geogsql.uwec.edu.

ESRI Inc. (2013). U.S. National Atlas Cities. Retrieved from geogsql.uwec.edu.