Statewide stream prioritization based on 226 Maxent derived predictive habitat maps of aquatic organisms in North Carolina

Statewide stream prioritization based on 226 Maxent derived predictive habitat maps of aquatic organisms in North Carolina To better understand the geographic distributions of aquatic species in North Carolina, Mark Endries of the US Fish and Wildlife Service Asheville Field Office created predictive habitat maps for 226 aquatic species using geographic information systems and maximum entropy (Maxent) modeling. Maxent is a machine learning technique that can be used to predict the geographic distribution of any spatial phenomena, including plants or animals. These maps were derived by comparing known species occurrences with a suite of stream and landcover derived environmental variables. The maps provide an excellent coarse-scale look at the potential stream suitability of many aquatic species present in North Carolina. These individual maps can be used to develop prioritizations of steam systems in the state to help educate people on the spatial distributions and conservation needs of aquatic species and habitats in North Carolina. This prioritized map ranks the state based on predicted species diversity and NatureServe global rank. As the prioritization value increases, diversity and/or extinction risk increases for the species predicted to be present.