Expected change in suitable habitat for riparian species along the Rio Grande in New Mexico under changing climate

Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt 3.3.3) methods were used to estimate expected change in suitable habitat for 12 different wildlife species under changing climate along the Rio Grande in New Mexico. Species include: Lucy's warbler, southwestern willow flycatcher, western yellow-billed cuckoo, New Mexican meadow jumping mouse, Hispid cotton rat, long-legged bat, Occult bat, Yuma bat, black-necked gartersnake, western painted turtle, american bullfrog, and northern leopard frog. These species were selected because their distribution is tied to a habitat or feature characteristic important to multiple species. Models of suitable habitat for each species are based on observation data from collection and survey samples taken from 1970 through 2013. MaxEnt related species' presence to climate, biophysical, and vegetation characteristics. We then projected future suitability of habitats by applying these models to future conditions as predicted by three climate models at three times periods, 2030 (2020-2060), 2060 (2050-2070), and 2090 (2080-2100). The climate data used in this study were derived from the: 1) Canadian Center for Climate Modeling and analysis (CCC) using the CGCM3.1 model, 2) Geophysical Fluid Dynamics laboratory (GFDL) using the CM2.1 model and, 3) Met office, Hadley Centre (HAD), using the HadCM3 model. The data in this product therefore represent four different time periods for three different models. Also included are consensus images designating where 1) all three climate models predicted suitable habitat, and 2) at least 2 models predicted suitable habitat.
These data are part of a larger project that had two primary goals: 1) To develop a process for integrating data from multiple sources to improve predictions of climate impacts for wildlife species; and 2) To provide data on climate and related hydrological change, fire behavior under future climates, and species’ distributions for use by researchers and resource managers.
This metadata file contains the documentation for all of the data files included in this publication. Each individual raster layer has an associated metadata document with specific information associated with that layer (e.g. spatial information). However, this main metadata documentation should be used when looking for any information beyond the spatial details. Original metadata date was 09/24/2015. Minor metadata updates on 12/15/2016 and 07/19/2019.