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Distribution Models Predicting Groundwater Influenced Ecosystems in the Northeastern United States

Metadata Updated: July 6, 2024

Globally, groundwater dependent ecosystems (GDEs) are increasingly vulnerable to groundwater extraction and land use practices. Groundwater supports these ecosystems by providing inflow, which can maintain water levels, water temperature, and chemistry necessary to sustain the biodiversity that they support. Many aquatic systems receive groundwater as a portion of base flow, and in some systems (e.g., springs, seeps, fens) the connection with groundwater is significant and important to the system’s integrity and persistence. Groundwater management decisions for human use may not consider ecological effects of those actions on GDEs, which rely on groundwater to maintain ecological function. This disconnect between management and ecological needs can affect groundwater resources that have repercussions for both the GDEs and human populations that rely on them. This disparity can be attributed in part to a lack of information about where these systems are found and relationships with the surrounding landscape that may influence the environmental conditions and associated biodiversity. Knowledge of occurrence of GDEs in the northeastern United States is incomplete. As expanding urban areas alter the regional hydrology, threats to groundwater resources may increase. An objective of our research is to predict the occurrence of groundwater influenced ecosystems (GIEs) across the northeastern United States. We are applying geographically referenced information about known GIEs across two ecologically distinct EPA Level II Ecoregions (Atlantic Highlands, Mixed Woods Plains) in the northeastern United States using correlative distribution modeling methods [Generalized Linear Models (GLM), Generalized Additive Models (GAM), Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt), Random Forest] to produce a landscape scale habitat suitability maps for GIEs. We then evaluated the predictive outputs and ensemble model predictions to create consensus models for each Ecoregion. Knowledge of GIE locations and their contributing watersheds across this region can inform land management decisions, which can enhance conservation of these systems.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
@Id http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/4d4c877ebe6da292281f002b7e412b00
Identifier USGS:63e51f8cd34efa0476addf95
Data Last Modified 20230306
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://datainventory.doi.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 1757ccfc-a436-4d38-8e0c-07826aa156e3
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -80.774,38.8859,-66.0065,49.0859
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 7127669e9577b24394b7b0e3626e8244755efc17e67d633bb88f67e4eab95fa1
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -80.774, 38.8859, -80.774, 49.0859, -66.0065, 49.0859, -66.0065, 38.8859, -80.774, 38.8859}

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