Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.

Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Skip to content

Distribution Models Predicting Groundwater Influenced Ecosystems in the Northeastern United States

Metadata Updated: October 29, 2025

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.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Created Date September 12, 2025
Metadata Updated Date October 29, 2025

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI USGS DCAT-US

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date September 12, 2025
Metadata Updated Date October 29, 2025
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
Identifier http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/usgs-63e51f8cd34efa0476addf95
Data Last Modified 2023-03-06T00:00:00Z
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://ddi.doi.gov/usgs-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 fae2505d-beda-4d1a-ad52-67dc31353d78
Harvest Source Id 2b80d118-ab3a-48ba-bd93-996bbacefac2
Harvest Source Title DOI USGS DCAT-US
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -80.7740, 38.8859, -66.0065, 49.0859
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 79034854367ba982892cca1c9f0fb2e2eef2feb675e755f091bf0b56b6dedda8
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -80.7740, 38.8859, -80.7740, 49.0859, -66.0065, 49.0859, -66.0065, 38.8859, -80.7740, 38.8859}

Didn't find what you're looking for? Suggest a dataset here.