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LITERATURE CITED
GLOSSARY OF GAP-RELATED TERMS
GLOSSARY OF GAP-RELATED ACRONYMS
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LITERATURE CITED

Allan, J. D. and L. B. Johnson. 1997. Catchment-scale analysis of aquatic ecosystems. Freshwater Biology 37:107-111.

American Ornithologists’ Union. 1983. Check-list of North American birds, 6th edition. Allen Press, Lawrence, KS.

American Ornithologists’ Union. 1995. Fortieth supplement to the American Ornithologists’ Union check-list of North American birds. Auk 112:819-830.

American Ornithologists’ Union. 1997. Forty-first supplement to the American Ornithologists’ Union check-list of North American birds. Auk 114:542-552.

Andrle, R. F. and J. R. Carroll. 1988. The atlas of breeding birds in New York State. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY. 551 p.

Argent, D. G., R. F. Carline and J. R. Stauffer, Jr. 1997. Historical and contemporary distribution of fishes in Pennsylvania. Final Report. Research Work Order No. 47. U.S.G.S. Biological Resources Division, The Pennsylvania Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit and The School of Forest Resources, Penn State Univ., Univ. Park, PA.

Argent, D. G., R. F. Carline and J. R. Stauffer, Jr. 1998. Changes in the distribution of Pennsylvania fishes: the last 100 years. Journal of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science 72:32-37.

Anderson, J. R., E. E. Hardy, J. T. Roach, and R. E. Witmer. 1976. A land use and land cover classification system for use with remote sensor data. Geological Survey Professional Paper 964. U.S. Geological Survey, Washington, D.C.

Austin, M. P. 1991. Vegetation: Data collection and analysis. Pages 37-41 in: C. R. Margules and M. P. Austin, eds., Nature conservation: Cost effective biological surveys and data analysis. Australia CSIRO, East Melborne.

Birkinbine, J. 1886. Report on forestry in 1877, by F. B. Hough. Forest Leaves, September, p. 9.

Boone, R. B. and W. B. Krohn. 1996. Maine state-wide gap analysis: Passerine bird species synopsis. Maine Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, University of Maine, Orono, ME. 382 p.

Bourgeron, P. S., H. C. Humphries, R. L. DeVelice, and M. E. Jensen. 1994. Ecological theory in relation to landscape and ecosystem characterization. Pages 58-72 in: M. E. Jensen and P. S. Bourgeron, eds., Ecosystem management: Principles and applications, Volume II. Gen. Tech. Rep. PNW-GTR-318. Portland, OR: USDA Forest Service, Pacific Northwest Research Station. 376 p.

Brauning, D. 1992. Atlas of breeding birds in Pennsylvania. The University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA. 484 p.

Brooks, R. P. and M. J. Croonquist. 1990. Wetland, habitat, and trophic response guilds for wildlife species in Pennsylvania. Journal of the Pennsylvania Academy of Science 64:93-102.

Buckelew, A. R., Jr. and G. A. Hall. The West Virginia breeding bird atlas. The University of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA. 215 pp.

Clark, W. S. and B. K. Wheeler. 1987. A field guide to hawks of North America. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA. 198 pp.

Cogan, C. and T. C. Edwards. 1994. Metadata standards for Gap Analysis. Gap Analysis Technical Bulletin 3. Idaho Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho.

Curson, J., D. Quinn and D. Beadle. 1994. Warblers of the Americas: an identification guide. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA. 252 pp.

Conant, R. and J. T. Collins. 1991. A field guide to reptiles and amphibians, Eastern and Central North America. Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, MA. 450 p.

Cooper, E. L. 1983. Fishes of Pennsylvania and the Northeastern United States. The Pennsylvania State University Press, Univ. Park, PA.

Crist, P., B. Thompson, and J. Prior-Magee. 1995. A dichotomous key of land management categorization, unpublished. New Mexico Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Csuti, B., S. Polasky, P. H. Williams, R. L. Pressey, J. D. Camm, M. Kershaw, A. R. Kiester, B. Downs, R. Hamilton, M. Huso and K. Sahr. In press. A comparison of reserve selection algorithms using data on terrestrial vertebrates in Oregon. Biological Conservation.

Csuti, B. 1994. Methods for developing terrestrial vertebrate distribution maps for Gap Analysis (version 1). In J. M. Scott and M. D. Jennings, editors. A handbook for Gap Analysis. Idaho Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, University of Idaho, Moscow.

Davis, F. W., P. A. Stine, D. M. Stoms, M. I. Borchert, and A. D. Hollander. 1995. Gap Analysis of the actual vegetation of California – 1. The southwestern region. Madrono 42:40-78.

DeCoster, L. A. 1995. The legacy of Penn’s Woods. Harrisburg, PA. Historic & Museum Commission and DCNR.

DeGraaf, R. M. and D. D. Rudis. 1981. Forest habitat for reptiles and amphibians of the Northeast. U.S. Forest Service, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station, Broomall, PA and Eastern Region, Milwaukee, WI. 239 pp.

DeGraaf, R. M. and D. D. Rudis. 1986. New England Wildlife: Habitat, natural history, and distribution. U.S. Forest Service, Northeastern Forest Experiment Station, Broomall, PA. Gen. Tech. Rep. NE-108. 491 pp.

Diamond, J. 1986. The design of a nature reserve system for Indonesian New Guinea. Pages 485-503 in M. E. Soule, ed. Conservation biology: The science of scarcity and diversity. Sinauer Associates, Sunderland, MA.

Driscoll, R. S., D. L. Merkel, D. L. Radloff, D. E. Snyder and J. S. Hagihara. 1984. An ecological land classification framework for the United States. Miscellaneous Publication 1439. USDA Forest Service, Washington, D.C.

Driscoll, R. S., D. L. Merkel, J. S. Hagihara, and D. L. Radloff. 1983. A component land classification for the United States: Status report. Technical Note 360. U. S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Land Management, Denver.

Dunn, J. L. and K. L. Garrett. 1997. A field guide to warblers of North America. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA. 656 pp.

Edwards, T. C., Jr., C. H. Homer, S. D. Bassett, A. Falconer, R. D. Ramsey and D. W. Wight. 1995. Utah Gap Analysis: An environmental information system. Technical Report 95-1, Utah Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Utah State University, Logan, Utah.

Ehrlich, P. R., D. S. Dobkin and D. Wheye. 1988. The birder’s handbook: a field guide to the natural history of North American birds. Simon and Schuster: New York, NY. 785 pp.

Ernst, C. H., R. W. Barbour and J. E. Lovich. 1994. Turtles of the United States and Canada. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 578 pp.

Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC). 1994. Content standards for digital geospatial metadata. 8 June 1994. Federal Geographic Data Committee, Washington, D.C.

Federal Geographic Data Committee. 1995. Content standards for digital geospatial metadata workbook, FGDC, Washington, D.C.

Federal Geographic Data Committee, Vegetation Subcommittee. 1997. FGDC Vegetation Classification and Information Standards – June 3, 1996 Draft. FGDC Secretariat, Reston, VA. 35 pp.

Fike, J. 1999. Terrestrial & palustrine plant communities of Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania Natural Diversity Inventory, PA DCNR Bureau of Forestry, The Nature Conservancy, and Western Pennsylvania Conservancy. Harrisburg, PA.

Forman, R.T.T. and M. Godron. 1986. Landscape ecology. John Wiley and Sons, New York, NY.

Franklin, J. F. 1993. Preserving biodiversity: Species, ecosystems, or landscapes? Ecological Applications 3(2):202-205.

Freemark, K. and B. Collins. 1992. Landscape ecology of birds breeding in temperate forest fragments. Pp. 443-454 in: J. M. Hagan III and D. W. Johnston, eds. Ecology and conservation of neotropical migrant landbirds. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C.

Green, B. N. and T. K. Pauley. 1987. Amphibians and reptiles in West Virginia. Univ. of Pittsburgh Press, Pittsburgh, PA. 241 pp.

Grossman, D., K. L. Goodin, X. Li, C. Wisnewski, D. Faber-Langendoen, M. Anderson, L. Sneddon, D. Allard, M. Gallyoun and A. Weakley. 1994. Standardized national vegetation classification system. Report by The Nature Conservancy and Environmental Systems Research Institute for the NBS/NPS Vegetation Mapping Program. National Biological Service, Denver, Colorado.

Harrison, P. 1983. Seabirds, an identification guide. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA. 448p.

Hill, R. J. 1997. Natural Areas in Penn’s Woods: a snapshot of extraordinary resources. Pennsylvania Forests 88(1):6-7, 9.

Hocutt, C. H. and E. O. Wiley. 1986. The zoogeography of North American freshwater fishes. John Wiley & Sons, Inc., New York, NY.

Imhof, J. G., J. Fitzgibbon and W. K. Annable. 1996. A hierarchical evaluation system for characterizing watershed ecosystems for fish habitat. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences 53(Supplement 1):312-326.

Isler, M. L. and P. R. Isler. 1987. The tanagers: natural history, distribution, and identification. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. 404 p.

Jenkins, R. E. 1985. Information methods: Why the Heritage Programs work. The Nature Conservancy News 35(6):21-23.

Jenkins, R. and N. Burkehead. 1994. Fishes of Virginia. The American Fisheries Society Press. Bethesda, MD.

Jennings, M. D. 1993. Natural terrestrial cover classification: Assumptions and definitions. Gap Analysis Technical Bulletin 2. Idaho Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, University of Idaho, Moscow.

Johnson, L. B. and S. H. Gage. 1997. Landscape approaches to the analysis of aquatic ecosystems. Freshwater Biology 37:113-132.

Jones, C., R. S. Hoffman, D. W. Rice, M. D. Engstom, R. D. Bradley, D. J. Schmidly, C. A. Jones and R. J. Baker. 1997. Revised checklist of North American mammals north of Mexico, 1997. Museum of Texas Tech University Occasional Papers 173:1-19.

Kiester, A. R., J. M. Scott, B. Csuti, R. F. Noss and B. Butterfield. In press. Conservation prioritization using GAP data. Conservation Biology.

Kirkpatrick, J. B. 1983. An iterative method for establishing priorities for the selection of nature reserves: An example from Tasmania. Biological Conservation 25:127-134.

Kuchler, A. W., and I. S. Zonneveld, eds. 1988. Vegetation mapping. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, The Netherlands. 635 p.

Lee, D. S., C. R. Gilbert, C. H. Hocutt, R. E. Jenkins, D. E. McAllister and J. R. Stauffer, Jr. 1980. Atlas of North American Freshwater Fishes. North Carolina State Museum of Natural History, Raleigh, North Carolina.

Levin, S. A. 1981. The problem of pattern and scale in ecology. Ecology 73:1942-1968.

Lins, K. S. and R. L. Kleckner. In press. Land cover mapping: An overview and history of the concepts. In: J. M. Scott, T. H. Tear and F. Davis, eds., Gap Analysis: A landscape approach to biodiversity planning. American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing, Bethesda, Maryland.

Madge, S. and H. Burn. 1988. Waterfowl: an identification guide to the ducks, geese, and swans of the world. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA. 298 pp.

Margules, C. R., A. O. Nicholls and R. L. Pressey. 1988. Selecting networks of reserves to maximize biological diversity. Biological Conservation 43:63-76.

Mayden, R. L., B. M. Burr, L. M. Page and R. R. Miller. 1992. The native freshwater fishes of North America. Pp. 827-863 in: R. L. Mayden, ed. Systematics, historical ecology, and North American freshwater fishes. Stanford Univ. Press, Stanford, CA.

Meixler, M. S., M. B. Bain and G. H. Galbreath. 1996. Aquatic GAP analysis: tool for watershed scale assessment of fluvial habitat and biodiversity. Proceedings of the Ecohydraulics 2000 Symposium, Quebec City, Canada.

Merritt, J. F. 1987. Guide to the mammals of Pennsylvania. Carnegie Museum of Natural History, Univ. of Pittsburg Press, PA. 408 pp.

Miller, K. R. 1994. In J. A. McNeely and K. R. Miller, eds. National parks conservation and development. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Mueller-Dombois, D. and H. Ellenberg. 1974. Aims and methods of vegetation ecology. John Wiley & Sons, New York. 547 pp.

Myers, W. 1999. Remote sensing and quantitative geogrids in PHASES [Pixel Hyperclusters As Segmented Environmental Signals], Release 3.4. Research Rept. ER9901, Environmental Resources Research Inst., Penn State Univ., Univ. Park, PA 16802.

Myers, W. 2000. Landscape scale ecological mapping of Pennsylvania forests. Research Rept. ER2002. Environmental Resources Research Institute, Penn State Univ., Univ. Park, PA 16802.

Nicholls, A. O. and C. R. Margules. 1993. An upgraded reserve selection algorithm. Biological Conservation 64:165-169.

Noss, R. F. 1990. Indicators for monitoring biodiversity: A hierarchical approach. Conservation Biology 4:355-364.

Noss, R. F. 1987. From plant communities to landscapes in conservation inventories: A look at The Nature Conservancy (USA). Biological Conservation 41:11-37.

Noss, R. F. 1991. Report to the Fund for Animals in Washington, D.C.

Noss, R. F. and A. Y. Cooperrider. 1994. Saving nature’s legacy. Island Press, Washington, D.C.

Noss, R. F., E. T. LaRoe III and J. M. Scott. 1995. Endangered ecosystems of the United States: A preliminary assessment of loss and degradation. Biological Report 28, National Biological Service, Washington, D.C.

O’Connell, T. J. 1999. Bird communities in the Mid-Atlantic Highlands: relationships to landscapes and implications for conservation. Ph.D. Dissertation. Intercollege Graduate Degree Program in Ecology, The Pennsylvania State University, Univ. Park, PA. 153 pp.

Odum, E. D. and H. T. Odum. 1972. Proceedings of the North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference 39:178.

Pressey, R. L. and A. O. Nicholls. 1989. Application of a numerical algorithm to the selection of reserves in semi-arid New South Wales. Biological Conservation 50:263-278.

Pressey, R. L., C. J. Humphries, C. R. Margules, R. I. Vane-Wright and P. H. Williams. 1993. Beyond opportunism: Key principles for systematic reserve selection. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 8:124-128.

Richards, C., L. B. Johnson and G. E. Host. 1996. Landscape-scale influences on stream habitats and biota. Canadian Journal of Fisheries and Aquaic Sciences 53(Suppl. 1):295-311.

Ride, W. L. D. 1975. In F. Fenner, ed. A national system of ecological reserves in Australia. 64 p.

Rising, J. D. and D. D. Beadle. 1996. A guide to the identification and natural history of the sparrows of the United States and Canada. Academic Press, San Diego, CA. 365 pp.

Schlosser, I. J. 1991. Stream fish ecology: a landscape perspective. BioScience 41:704-712.

Scott, J. M. and M. D. Jennings, eds. 1994. A handbook for Gap Analysis. Idaho Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho.

Scott, J. M., F. Davis, B. Csuti, R. Noss, B. Butterfield, C. Groves, H. Anderson, S. Caicco, F. D’Erchia, T. C. Edwards, Jr., J. Ulliman and G. Wright. 1993. Gap analysis: A geographic approach to protection of biological diversity. Wildlife Monographs 123.

Seif, J. M. and C. E. Glotfelty. 1998. Report of the Pennsylvania 21st Century Environment Commission. Harrisburg, PA. http://www.21stcentury.state.pa.us

Shaffer, L. L. 1995. Pennsylvania amphibians and reptiles. Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission, Harrisburg, PA. 161 p.

Smith, C. L. 1985. The inland fishes of New York State. New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Albany, NY.

Specht, R. L. 1975. The report and its recommendations. Pages 11-16 in: F. Fenner, ed., A national system of ecological reserves in Australia. Australian Academy of Sciences Report No. 19. Canberra, Australia.

Specht, R. L., E. M. Roe and V. H.Boughlon. 1974. Australian Journal of Botany Supplement Series. Supplement No. 7.

Stauffer, J. R., Jr., J. M. Boltz and L. R. White. 1995. The fishes of West Virginia. The Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, PA.

Stoms, D. and J. Estes. 1993. A remote sensing research agenda for mapping and monitoring biodiversity. International Journal of Remote Sensing 14:1839-1860.

Stoms, D. M. 1994. Actual vegetation layer. In J. M. Scott and M. D. Jennings, eds. A handbook for Gap Analysis. Idaho Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, University of Idaho, Moscow.

Thorne, S. G., K. C. Kim and K. C. Steiner. 1995. A heritage for the 21st century: conserving Pennsylvania’s native biological diversity. Harrisburg: PA Fish & Boat Commission.

Trautman, M. B. 1981. The fishes of Ohio with illustrated keys. Revised Edition. Ohio State Univ. Press, Columbus, OH.

UNESCO. 1973. International classification and mapping of vegetation. Paris.

Williams, P. H., D. Gibbons, C. Margules, A. Rebelo, C. Humphries and R. Pressey. 1996. A comparison of richness hotspots, rarity hotspots, and complementary areas for conserving diversity of British birds. Conservation Biology 10:155-174.

Whittaker, R. H. 1960. Vegetation of the Siskiyou mountains, Oregon and California. Ecological Monographs 30(3):279-338.

Whittaker, R. H. 1995. Dominance and diversity in land plant communities. Science 147:250-259.

Whittaker, R. H. 1977. Species diversity in land communities. Evolutionary Biology 10:1-67.


GLOSSARY OF GAP-RELATED TERMS

Aerial videography – video images of the land surface taken from an airplane

Algorithm – a procedure to solve a problem or model a solution (in GAP typically refers to a GIS procedure used to model animal distributions)

Alliance level – a land unit made up of an “alliance” of natural communities that have the same dominant or co-dominant plant species or, in the absence of vegetation, by the dominant land cover typically described according to the Anderson land cover classification

Alpha diversity – a single within-habitat measure of species diversity regardless of internal pattern, generally over an area of 0.1 to 1,000 hectares (see Whittaker 1960, 1977)

Anderson Level II – the second hierarchical level in the Anderson land cover classification system (see Anderson et al. 1976)

Anthropogenic – caused by man

Assemblages – a group of ecologically interrelated plant and animal species

Band, spectral – a segment of the electromagnetic spectrum defined by a range of wavelengths (e.g. blue, green, red, near infrared, far infrared) that comprise the Landsat TM imagery

Beta diversity – the change in species diversity among different natural communities of a landscape; an index of between-habitat diversity (see Whittaker 1960, 1977)

Biodiversity – generally, the variety of life and its interrelated processes

Biogenic – relating to the geographical distribution of plants and animals

Biological diversity – see biodiversity

Cartographic – pertaining to the art or technique of making maps or charts

Classify – to assign objects, features, or areas on an image to spectral classes based upon their appearance as opposed to ‘classification’ used as a noun referring to a scheme for describing the hierarchies of vegetation or animal species for an area

Coarse filter – the general conservation activities that conserve the common elements of the landscape matrix, as opposed to the “fine filter” conservation activities that are aimed at special cases such as rare elements (see Jenkins 1985)

Community – a group of interacting plants and animals

Cover type – a non-technical higher-level floristic and structural description of vegetation cover

Cross-walking – matching equivalent land cover categories between two or more classification systems

Delineate – identifying the boundaries between more or less homogeneous areas on remotely sensed images as visible from differences in tone and texture

Delta diversity – the change in species diversity between landscapes along major climatic or physiographic gradients (see Whittaker 1977)

Digitization – entering spatial data digitally into a Geographic Information System

Ecoregion – a large region, usually spanning several million hectares, characterized by having similar biota, climate, and physiography (topography, hydrology, etc.)

Ecosystem – a biological community (ranging in scale from a single cave to millions of hectares), its physical environment, and the processes through which matter and energy are transferred among the components

Edge-matching – the process of connecting polygons at the boundary between two independently created maps, either between TM scenes or between state GAP data sets

Element – a plant community or animal species mapped by GAP; may also be referred to as an “element of biodiversity”

Error of commission – the occurrence of a species (or other map category) is erroneously predicted in an area where it is in fact absent

Error of omission – when a model fails to predict the occurrence of a species that is actually present in an area

Exact set coverage – a basic optimization problem to determine the best method for identifying general areas that, when selected sequentially, would have the greatest positive cumulative impact on attaining adequate representation of any or all biotic elements of interest

Extinction – disappearance of a species throughout its entire range

Extirpation – disappearance of a species from part of its range

Fine filter – see “coarse filter”

Floristic – pertaining to the plant species that make up the vegetation of a given area

Formation level – the level of land cover categorization between Group and Alliance describing the structural attributes of a land unit, for example, “Evergreen Coniferous Woodlands with Rounded Crowns” (see Jennings 1993)

Gamma diversity – the species diversity of a landscape, generally covering 1,000 to 1,000,000 hectares, made up of more than one kind of natural community (see Whittaker 1977)

Gap analysis – a comparison of the distribution of elements of biodiversity with that of areas managed for their long-term viability to identify elements with inadequate representation

Geographic information systems – computer hardware and software for storing, retrieving, manipulating, and analyzing spatial data

Global Position System (GPS) – an instrument that utilizes satellite signals to pinpoint its location on the earth’s surface

Greedy heuristic – an algorithm for exact set cover analysis (see Kiester et al., in press)

Ground truthing – verifying maps by checking the actual occurrence of plant and animal species in the field at representative sample locations

Habitat – the physical structure, vegetative composition, and physiognomy of an area, the characteristics of which determine its suitability for particular animal or plant species

Hectare – a metric unit of area of 10,000 square meters and equal to 2.47 acres

Hex/hexagon – typically refers to the EPA EMAP hexagonal grid of 635 square kilometer units

Hyperclustering – a computer-assisted heuristic method for analyzing and categorizing remotely-sensed data that reduces data size and computational requirements while retaining general integrity of the original data

Lotic – flowing, e.g., water in a stream or river

Metadata – information about data, e.g., their source, lineage, content, structure, and availability

Minimum mapping unit – the smallest area that is depicted on a map

Neotropics – the zoo-geographic region stretching southward from the tropic of Cancer and including southern Mexico, Central and South America, and the West Indies

Phenology – the study of periodic biological phenomena, such as flowering, breeding, and migration, especially as related to climate

Phenotype – the environmentally and genetically determined observable appearance of an organism, especially with respect to all possible genetically influenced expressions of one specific character

Physiognomic – based on physical features

Physiographic province – a region having a pattern of relief features or land forms that differ significantly from that of adjacent regions

Pixel – the smallest spatial unit in a raster data structure

Polygon – an area enclosed by lines in a vector-based Geographic Information System data layer or a region of contiguous homogeneous pixels in a raster system

Preprocessing – those operations that prepare data for subsequent analysis, usually by attempts to correct or compensate for systematic radiometric and geometric errors

Pro-active – acting in anticipation of an event as opposed to reacting after the fact

Range – the geographic limit of the species

Range unit – a spatial, geographic unit to record and display species geographic range

Reach – a stream or river segment between inflowing tributaries

Registration, spatial – matching different images to each other by finding corresponding points on the images

Remote sensing – deriving information about the earth’s surface from images acquired at a distance, usually relying on measurement of electromagnetic radiation reflected or emitted from the feature of interest

Resolution – the ability of a remote sensing system to record and display detail in a distinguishable manner or: the smallest feature that can be distinguished or resolved on a map or image, such as a TM pixel

Scale, map – the ratio of distance on the map to distance in the real world, expressed as a fraction; the smaller the denominator, the larger the scale, e.g. 1:24,000 is larger than 1:100,000

Sensitivity analysis – the consideration of a number of factors involved in the mathematical modeling of an ecosystem and its components; these include feedback and control, and the stability and sensitivity of the system as a whole to changes in some part of the system

Simulated annealing – an algorithm used for set coverage analysis (see Kiester et al., in press)

Species richness – the number of species in a particular group of interest found in a given area

Spectral cluster – a group of pixels having relative uniformity with respect to their brightness values

Supervised classification – the process of classifying TM pixels of unknown identity with respect to informational classes on the basis of spectral characteristics (signatures) and known sample sets (training sets)

Synoptic – constituting a brief statement or outline of a subject; presenting a summary; spatial scope that is comprehensive with respect to area

Tessellation – the division of an area into subunits, such as the EPA-EMAP hexagons

Thematic mapper – a sensor on LANDSAT 4, 5, and 7 satellites that records information in seven spectral bands, has a spatial resolution of about 30 m x 30 m, and represents digital values of brightness in 256 levels per band

Transect – a linear course traversing an area along which physical and biological observations are made

Trophic structure – the various levels in a food chain, such as producers (plants), primary consumers (herbivores), and secondary consumers (carnivores)

Universal Transverse Mercator – one of several map projections or systems of spatial transformations that enables locations on the spherical earth to be represented systematically on a flat map

Universal Transverse Mercator grid – a geographic reference system used as the basis for worldwide locational coding of information in a GIS or on a map

Unsupervised classification – the determination, identification, labeling and mapping of inherent groups of spectral values within a scene; such groups having relative uniformity of brightness in several spectral bands

Vector format – a data structure that uses polygons, arcs (lines), and points as fundamental spatial units for analysis and manipulation in a Geographic Information System

Virtual reality – a computer-generated simulation of reality with which users can interact using specialized peripherals such as data gloves and head-mounted computer graphic displays

Wildlife habitat relationship model – a method of linking patterns of known habitat use by animal species with maps of existing vegetation and physiography, thereby identifying the spatial extent of important habitat features for use in conservation and management


GLOSSARY OF GAP-RELATED ACRONYMS

ACSM American Congress on Surveying and Mapping
ADAMAS Aquatic Database Management System
ADEM Alabama Department of Environmental Management
AML ARC/INFO Macro Language
ASPRS American Society for Photogrammetry & Remote Sensing
AVHRR Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (satellite system)
BEST Biomonitoring of Environmental Status and Trends
BLM Bureau of Land Management
CAFF Conservation of Arctic Flora and Fauna
C-CAP Coastwatch Change Analysis Program (NOAA)
CDC Conservation Data Center
CEC Council on Environmental Cooperation
CENR Committee on Environment and Natural Resources
CERES California Environmental Resources Evaluation System
CIESIN Consortium for International Earth Science Information Network
CODA Conservation Options and Decision Analysis (software)
CRMP Coordinated Resource Management Plan
CRT Cathode Ray Tube
CRUC Cooperative Research Unit Center
DLG-E Digital Line Graph – Enhanced
DOI Department Of the Interior
DOQQ Digital Orthophoto Quarter Quadrangle
EDC EROS Data Center
ECOMAP The ECOlogical MAPping project of the USDA Forest Service based a national hierarchical framework of ecological units
EMAP-LC EMAP-Landscape Characterization (USEPA)
EMSL Environmental Monitoring & Systems Laboratory (USEPA)
EMTC Environmental Management Technical Center (NBS)
EOS Earth Observing System
EOSAT Earth Observation Satellite Company (the commercial operator of the Landsat satellite system)
EOSDIS EOS Data & Information System
ERL Environmental Research Laboratory, Corvallis (USEPA)
EROS Earth Resources Observation Systems (USGS)
ESRI Environmental Systems Research Institute
ETM+ Enhanced Thematic Mapper plus
FGDC Federal Geographic Data Committee
FTP File Transfer Protocol
FY Fiscal Year
GAO General Accounting Office (Congress)
GAP Gap Analysis Program
GCDIS Global Change Data and Information System
GLIS Global Land Information System (USGS)
GLOBE Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment
GPS Global Position System
GRASS Geographic Resources Analysis Support System
GRIS Geographic Resource Information Systems
HRMSI High Resolution Multispectral Stereo Imager
IALE International Association of Landscape Ecology
IDRISI A GIS developed by Clark University
LAPS Land Acquisition Priority System
LC/LU Land Cover/Land Use (USGS)
MIPS Map and Image Processing System
MOU Memorandum of Understanding
MMU Minimum Mapping Unit
MRLC Multi-Resolution Land Characteristics consortium
MSS Multi-Spectral Scanner
MTPE Mission To Planet Earth
NAFTA North American Free Trade Agreement
NALC North American Landscape Characterization (USEPA, USGS)
NAWQA National Water Quality Assessment (USGS)
NBII National Biological Information Infrastructure
NBS National Biological Service
NCCP Natural Communities Conservation Planning program (in CA)
NDCDB National Digital Cartographic Data Base
NERC National Ecology Research Center (Ft. Collins, CO)
NMD National Mapping Division
NSDI National Spatial Data Infrastructure
NSTC National Science and Technology Council
NWI National Wetlands Inventory (USFSW)
OMB Office of Management and Budget (Administration)
OSIS Oregon Species Information System
PARC Public Access Resource Center
PHASES Pixel Hyperclusters As Segmented Environmental Signals (Pennsylvania software)
PI Principal Investigator
RHII Regional Habitat Insecurity Index multiplicatively combining regional habitat scarcity, scarcity of habitat in conservation areas, and scarcity of habitat outside conservation areas
SAB Science Advisory Board (USEPA)
SCICOLL Scientific Collections Permit Database
SDTS Spatial Data Transfer Standard
SGID State Geographic Information Database
SNEP Sierra Nevada Ecosystem Project
SOFIA Southern Forest Inventory and Analysis
SPOT Systeme Pour l’Observation de la Terre
RMSE Root Mean Square Error
TIGER Topologically Integrated Geographic Encoding and Referencing system (used for U.S. census)
TM Thematic Mapper
TNC The Nature Conservancy
UNESCO United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization
URISA Urban and Regional Information Systems Association
URL Universal Resource Locator
USFS U.S. Forest Service
USFWS U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
UTM Universal Transverse Mercator
UVM University of Vermont
WHRM Wildlife/habitat relationship model
WISCLAND Wisconsin Initiative for Statewide Cooperation on Landscape Analysis and Data

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