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Species Richness for 63 mammals in South Florida without minimum critical area and dispersal distances modeled.

Gap analysis models potential habitat of all the terrestrial vertebrates (and ants and butterflies) in Florida by identification of land covers used by each species within the geographic range of the species. The statewide range of each species is mapped at the county level in Florida. Land cover classification from Landsat satellite imagery is used to determine potential habitat.

The Florida Gap Project is taking the modeling of potential habitat one step further by developing estimates of the minimum contiguous area of habitat required to mantain viable populations. For some species, smaller patches may still be considered viable habitat if the patch is within the dispersal distance of the species.

Florida land-covers and habitat matrices are complete for all the areas south of Orlando allowing the Florida Gap Program to model potential habitat for south Florida.

To the right is the same 63 mammals modeled with consideration of minimum critical areas and dispersal distances for each species. There are two principal effects of incoorporating minimum critical area in species' models. The first is the removal of small patches of habitat. The second effect is a depression of the total species richness at specific locations. You may need to display the larger images to see these effects.

Larger Image (410 kb)

Species Richness for 63 mammals in South Florida with minimum critical area and dispersal distances modeled.