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Predicted connectivity pathways between grizzly bear ecosystems in Western Montana: spatial data

Metadata Updated: July 20, 2024

Grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) connectivity pathways delineate predicted movement routes for grizzly bears between federally designated recovery zones in and near western Montana. These raster data are the official data release for Sells et al. (2023), "Predicted connectivity pathways between grizzly bear ecosystems in Western Montana." In summary, we built on recent work by Sells et al. (2022, 2023) to simulate movements using integrated step selection functions (iSSFs) developed from GPS-collared grizzly bears (F = 46, M = 19) in the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem (NCDE). We applied the iSSFs in a >300,000 km2 area including the NCDE, Cabinet–Yaak (CYE), Bitterroot (BE), and Greater Yellowstone (GYE) Ecosystems to simulate habitat use between ecosystems. We employed two simulation methods. First, we simulated directed movements (randomized shortest paths with 3 levels of exploration) between start and end nodes across populations. Second, we simulated undirected movements from start nodes in the NCDE, CYE, or GYE (no predetermined end nodes). We summarized and binned results as classes 1(lowest relative predicted use) -10 (highest relative predicted use) and evaluated predictions using 127 outlier grizzly bear locations. Connectivity pathways were primarily associated with mountainous areas and secondarily with river and stream courses in open valleys. Values at outlier locations indicated good model fit and mean iSSF classes at outlier locations (≥7.4) and Spearman rank correlations (≥0.87) were highest for undirected simulations and directed simulations with the highest level of exploration. Our predictive maps can facilitate on-the-ground application of this research for prioritizing habitat conservation, human-bear conflict mitigation, and transportation planning.

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 July 26, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 20, 2024

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date July 26, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 20, 2024
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
@Id http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/9a5425fde493eeb4a68d1f67f6be073f
Identifier USGS:6491b29bd34ef77fcb004434
Data Last Modified 20240711
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 73ad4571-9b90-422d-8b37-88b020661c63
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -117.4219,43.0689,-107.3145,49.0
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash b54ff75955a2b3453b83cc994d29ce29d0bb2a6699611bef7e2441f247a4d45b
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -117.4219, 43.0689, -117.4219, 49.0, -107.3145, 49.0, -107.3145, 43.0689, -117.4219, 43.0689}

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