Combined Potential Species Habitats in Florida

This dataset has three data layers. The first represents the richness of potential habitat for selected focal species in Florida. The second represents all potential habitats in Florida for selected focal species, in binary format (true/false).This third represents all potential habitats in Florida formatted for queries by focal species; identifies focal species that may inhabit selected pixel(s).

Potential habitat includes areas that have been occupied by the species and areas where occupancy is unknown based on available occurrence records.

In 1994, researchers in the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission completed a project, entitled Closing The Gaps in Florida's Wildlife Habitat Conservation System (Cox et al 1994), assessing the security of rare and imperiled species on existing conservation lands in Florida. These biologists used a variety of species occurrence data, habitat data and a geographic information system (GIS) to determine the protection afforded to focal species on publicly owned lands and identify important habitat areas in Florida with no conservation protection. These areas, known as Strategic Habitat Conservation Areas (SHCA), serve as a foundation for conservation planning in Florida by clearly depicting the crucial need for species protection through habitat conservation. The results of this research have provided biologists, policy-makers, land-use planners and the citizens of Florida the tools and opportunity to help meet our wildlife conservation goals.

Over time, the Closing the Gaps report became outdated. Since 1994, landscape-level habitat changes, transfer of land from private to public ownership and changes in land use altered the ability to accurately assess Florida's biodiversity and wildlife conservation status. As a result, Commission biologists and managers recognized the urgent need for a revisiting of Florida's Closing the Gaps project. Advances in technological capabilities, revised habitat data, and more extensive species occurrence data facilitated a reassessment of Florida's biodiversity protection status. Additionally, advances in population viability modeling techniques allowed examination of wildlife habitat needs with a degree and clarity that was not available in the previous report. The results of this project have helped determine how habitat protection needs have changed since 1994 and where protection efforts need to be focused to ensure conservation of Florida's wildlife for future generations.