bald eagle wildlife study using geographical information systems
TRANSCRIPT
Bald Eagle Wildlife Study Using Geographical Information Systems
Project Proposal
The State of Florida is looking for an area to set up increased protection for the bald eagle's habitat. I was tasked by the State of Florida to help identify an ideal location to set up this preserve. They would also like to know some of the manmade factors that could affect the survival of the species. The final decision will be made by the Conservation Board of Florida. After creating multiple maps showing the spatial relationship between bald eagle nests and factors that may affect the environment around those nests I have come up with two possible locations for a preserve. Of these two locations I recommend the selection of the area labeled Potential Area Two.
http://www.nhptv.org/NATUREWORKS/baldeagle.htm
Bald Eagles Bald eagles were named the National Symbol of the United
States in 1782At the time their population was estimated between 25,000
to 75,000 in the lower 48 States (Huerta)Bald eagles feed primarily on fish Bald eagles are monogamous and lay 1 to 3 eggs a yearWith the introduction of the pesticide DDT to the
environment, the population of the bald eagle dramatically declined to 420 breeding pairs by 1963
DDT banned In 1973 they were listed as endangered by the Endangered
Species Act In the 30 years since the bald eagle’s numbers have grown
to 4,450. Florida has the second highest number of bald eagle
breeding pairsin the lower 48Bald eagles remain threatened
Legend
States
Eagle_Pair
125 and less
126 - 250
251 - 500
501 - 1000
1001 and greater
Distribution of Bald Eagle Breeding Pairs in the United States
Data taken from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and added to United States shapefile.<http://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/issues/BaldEagle/baldeaglepopmapfinal.pdf>
GoalsLocate an area in Florida to focus the project on
use GIS to map out bald eagle nests
use different man made and natural variables near bald eagle nests to select potential locations for increased protection
Major roads, rivers and lakes, solid waste facilities and major cities
Downloaded from:Florida Geographic
Data Library
Bald Eagle Nest
Shapefile
Florida County
Shapefile
Downloaded from:US Census GIS Data
Select by attribute only those nests that were active in 2006
Spatial JoinSpatially join the Bald
Eagle layer to the county layer
Summarize the attribute table of the new shapefile using the
FIPS column
Join attributes from the summarized table to the original county
layer
Symbology
Use graduated colors
choropleth map to show the
distribution of bald eagle nests
per county.
Choropleth Map of Eagle Nests by County in Florida
Legend
FloridaCounties
Sum_EaglesCounty.Cnt_FIPS
10 and less
11 - 20
21 - 40
41 - 80
81 and greater
Analysis of Choropleth Map
From the choropleth map I decided to select nine counties for a larger scale analysis of the bald eagle
Polk county had the greatest number of active eagle nests in 2006
I selected Polk county and the following other counties for analysis: Volusia, Seminole, Orange, Lake, Alachua, Marion, Polk, Osceola
Selected Study Area of Florida
Bald Eagle Nest
Shapefile
Selected Area
Shapefile
Use ToolBox to merge the counties to create a single large polygon .
Selected Area Merged Polygon
Use the selected area shapefile to clip the bald eagle nest
data by location
Clip
New Shapefile created of just those nests located inside the
selected area.
Legend
EaglesActive06_Clip
SelectedArea_Dissolve
EaglesActive06
FloridaState
Larger scale view of selected area with those eagle nests that fall within.
Perform the same clip operation to
Florida Major Roads
Florida Rivers and Lakes
Florida Solid Waste Facilities
Florida Major Cities
Florida Major Roads
Selected Area
Bald Eagle
Nest Clip
Create buffers around the
Major RoadsCLIP
Use buffers to clip the bald eagle nest that
intersect the roads buffer
scale 1:2,000,000 meters
Legend
Eagles_200m
Eagles_400m
Eagles_800m
Eagles_1600m
EaglesActive06_Clip
RoadsBuffer_200m
RoadsBuffer_400m
RoadsBuffer_800m
RoadsBuffer_1600m
SelectedArea_Dissolve
Buffers around Roads
Scale 1:400,000 meters
Legend
Eagles_200m
Eagles_400m
Eagles_800m
Eagles_1600m
EaglesActive06_Clip
RoadsBuffer_200m
RoadsBuffer_400m
RoadsBuffer_800m
RoadsBuffer_1600m
SelectedArea_Dissolve
Buffers around Roads
Legend
Eagles_200m
Eagles_400m
Eagles_800m
Eagles_1600m
EaglesActive06_Clip
RoadsBuffer_200m
RoadsBuffer_400m
RoadsBuffer_800m
RoadsBuffer_1600m
SelectedArea_Dissolve
Roads & Bald Eagle NestTotal Number of Bald Eagle Nests in Selected Area 578
Put buffers around the roads to show how close the birds nests are. Use select by location to find out the number of nests inside the buffer.
200 meter buffer: how many nests are within that buffer: 56
400 meter buffer: how many within this buffer: 118
800 meter buffer: how many within this buffer: 233
1600 meter buffer: how many in this buffer: 358
Solid Waste
Selected Area
Bald Eagle
Nest Clip
Create buffers around the Solid Waste
Facilities
CLIP
Use buffers to clip the bald eagle nest that
intersect the solid waste
buffer
Scale 1:2,000,000
Legend
Eagles_400m
Eagles_800m
Eagles_1600m
Eagles_3200m
Eagles_6400m
!( EaglesActive06_Clip
SolidWaste_200m
SolidWaste_400m
SolidWaste_800m
SolidWaste_1600m
SolidWaste_3200m
SolidWaste_6400m
SelectedArea_Dissolve
Buffers around Solid Waste Facilities
Legend
Eagles_400m
Eagles_800m
Eagles_1600m
Eagles_3200m
Eagles_6400m
!( EaglesActive06_Clip
SolidWaste_200m
SolidWaste_400m
SolidWaste_800m
SolidWaste_1600m
SolidWaste_3200m
SolidWaste_6400m
SelectedArea_Dissolve
Buffers around Solid Waste Facilities
Scale 1:400,000 meters
Solid Waste Facilities & Bald Eagle NestTotal Number of Bald Eagle Nests in Selected Area 578
Put buffers around the solid waste facilities to show how close the birds nests are. Use select by location to find out the number of nests inside the buffer.
How many nests are within 200 meters: zeroHow many nests are within 400 meters: 1How many nests are within 800 meters: 3How many nests are within 1600 meters: 10How many nests are within 3200 meters: 50How many nests are within 6400 meters: 145
Rivers & Lakes
Rivers & Lakes
Selected Area
Selected Area
Bald Eagle
Nest Clip
Bald Eagle
Nest Clip
Create buffers around the Rivers and
Lakes
Create buffers around the Rivers and
Lakes
CLIP
Use buffers to clip the bald eagle nest that
intersect the rivers and
lakes buffer
Use buffers to clip the bald eagle nest that
intersect the rivers and
lakes buffer
Scale 1:2,000,000
Buffers around Rivers & Lakes
Legend
Eagles_200m
Eagles_400m
Eagles_800m
Eagles_1600m
Eagles_3200m
Eagles_6400m
EaglesActive06_Clip
200m River Buffer
400m River Buffer
800m River Buffer
1600m River Buffer
3200m River Buffer
6400m River Buffer
SelectedArea_Dissolve
Buffers around Rivers & Lakes
Scale 1:400,000 meters
Legend
Eagles_200m
Eagles_400m
Eagles_800m
Eagles_1600m
Eagles_3200m
Eagles_6400m
EaglesActive06_Clip
200m River Buffer
400m River Buffer
800m River Buffer
1600m River Buffer
3200m River Buffer
6400m River Buffer
SelectedArea_Dissolve
Rivers & Lakes & Bald Eagle NestTotal Number of Bald Eagle Nests in Selected Area 578
Put buffers around the rivers and lakes to show how close the birds nests are. Use select by location to find out the number of nests inside the buffer.
How many nests are within 200 meters: 31How many nests are within 400 meters: 53How many nests are within 800 meters: 107How many nests are within 1600 meters: 182How many nests are within 3200 meters: 265How many nests are within 6400 meters: 346
Major Florida Cities
Major Florida Cities
Selected Area
Selected Area
Bald Eagle
Nest Clip
Bald Eagle
Nest Clip
Create buffers around the
Cities
Create buffers around the
CitiesCLIP
Use buffers to clip the bald eagle nest that
intersect the city buffer
Use buffers to clip the bald eagle nest that
intersect the city buffer
Scale 1:2,000,000
Buffers around Florida Major Cities
Legend
Cities_EagleBufer4
Cities_EagleBufer5
Cities_EagleBufer6
EaglesActive06_Clip
Cities_Clip_Buffer1
Cities_Clip_Buffer2
Cities_Clip_Buffer3
Cities_Clip_Buffer4
Cities_Clip_Buffer5
Cities_Clip_Buffer6
SelectedArea_Dissolve
Scale 1:400,000 meters
Buffers around Florida Major Cities
Legend
Cities_EagleBufer4
Cities_EagleBufer5
Cities_EagleBufer6
EaglesActive06_Clip
Cities_Clip_Buffer1
Cities_Clip_Buffer2
Cities_Clip_Buffer3
Cities_Clip_Buffer4
Cities_Clip_Buffer5
Cities_Clip_Buffer6
SelectedArea_Dissolve
Major Cities & Bald Eagle NestTotal Number of Bald Eagle Nests in Selected Area 578
Put buffers around the cities to show how close the birds nests are. Use select by location to find out the number of nests inside the buffer.
How many nests are within 200 meters: zeroHow many nests are within 400 meters: zeroHow many nests are within 800 meters: zeroHow many nests are within 1600 meters: 9How many nests are within 3200 meters: 31How many nests are within 6400 meters: 112
Final Map For a final map I added buffers from each of
the variables to the map
Chose the buffer based on what the average number of nest within the buffers was
The buffer closest to the average was chosen
Selected the bald eagle nests that did not intersect any of the buffers
Scale 1:2,000,000
Buffers around Cities, Roads, Rivers & Lakes, and Solid Waste Facilities
Legend
Eagles_OutsideBuffers
Cities_3200m
SolidWaste_3200m
MajorRoads_400m
MajorRoads_800m
Rivers_3200m
SelectedArea_Dissolve
Potential Sites for Extra Protection of Bald Eagles
Legend
Eagles_OutsideBuffers
Cities_3200m
SolidWaste_3200m
MajorRoads_400m
MajorRoads_800m
Rivers_3200m
SelectedArea_Dissolve Potential Area 2Scale 1:275,000
Potential Area 1Scale 1:275,000
Raster Data of Florida Water Bodies
ConclusionThe two possible areas for increase protection that I chose were chosen because they both had a large number of bird nests, were located near water supplies and were not intersecting any of the buffers that were created around the man made variables.
Of the two areas I would suggest the second over the first because there is a larger area of land without major roads. It also appears from the raster data that there are more areas of water.
Future Research SuggestionsStudy the selected areas at a larger scale Study the selected areas with more variablesAdd a habitat shapefile to find out what trees
the bald eagles like to nest inStudy the possible future land use in the areaAdd building shapefiles to a larger scale
study Add non major roads Add information on bald eagle mortality
events