DOI: 10.5061/dryad.t6859
title: Data from: Use of opportunistic sightings and expert knowledge to predict and compare Whooping Crane stopover habitat

description: Predicting a species’ distribution can be helpful for evaluating
 management actions such as critical habitat designations under the U.S.
 Endangered Species Act or habitat acquisition and rehabilitation. Whooping
 Cranes (Grus americana) are one of the rarest birds in the world, and
 conservation and management of habitat is required to ensure their
 survival. We developed a species distribution model (SDM) that could be
 used to inform habitat management actions for Whooping Cranes within the
 state of Nebraska (U.S.A.). We collated 407 opportunistic Whooping Crane
 group records reported from 1988 to 2012. Most records of Whooping Cranes
 were contributed by the public; therefore, developing an SDM that
 accounted for sampling bias was essential because observations at some
 migration stopover locations may be under represented. An auxiliary data
 set, required to explore the influence of sampling bias, was derived with
 expert elicitation. Using our SDM, we compared an intensively managed area
 in the Central Platte River Valley with the Niobrara National Scenic River
 in northern Nebraska. Our results suggest, during the peak of migration,
 Whooping Crane abundance was 262.2 (90% CI 40.2−3144.2) times higher per
 unit area in the Central Platte River Valley relative to the Niobrara
 National Scenic River. Although we compared only 2 areas, our model could
 be used to evaluate any region within the state of Nebraska. Furthermore,
 our expert-informed modeling approach could be applied to opportunistic
 presence-only data when sampling bias is a concern and expert knowledge is
 available.
description: detection data with all
 covariatesThe file ‘detection data
 with all covariates.csv’ includes probabilities of detection elicited from
 the experts in our study and the associated predictors. The column ‘p.det’
 is the probability of detection provided by the expert. The column
 ‘group.size’ is the whooping crane group size the probability was provided
 for. The column ‘sample’ indicates if the whooping crane group location
 was used in the training (75%) or test (25%) partition of the data. The
 column ‘water.500’ is the percentage of water within a 500 m radius buffer
 around the whooping crane group location the expert provided. Names for
 other covariates of similar form to ‘water.500’ indicate the type of
 habitat and the buffer size (water, development, barren, forest,
 grassland, pasture, crop, woodywetland, and emergentwetland (see Appendix
 S4 for details); 500 m, 1,000 m, 2,500 m, 5,000 m, and 10,000 m). The
 column ‘expert’ is a numeric value that identifies the anonymous source of
 the data (composed of seven reporting experts). The columns ‘day’, ‘month’
 and ‘year’ identify the date provided by the expert. The columns ‘lat’ and
 ‘long’ is the latitude and longitude of the point provided by the
 expert.niobrara
 covariatesThe file ‘niobrara
 covariates.csv’ includes the percentage of nine habitat types (water,
 development, barren, forest, grassland, pasture, crop, woodywetland,
 emergentwetland; see Appendix S4 for details) within a buffer (of radius
 500 m, 1,000 m, 2,500 m, 5,000 m, and 10,000 m) from the 2006 National
 Land Cover Database at 99,995 locations (equally spaced) in the Niobrara
 National Scenic River area. For example, the column ‘water.500’ is the
 percentage of water within a 500 m radius buffer. The columns ‘lat’ and
 ‘long’ indicate the latitude and longitude of the location where the
 predictor was calculated.program
 covariatesThe file ‘program
 covariates.csv’ includes the percentage of nine habitat types (water,
 development, barren, forest, grassland, pasture, crop, woodywetland,
 emergentwetland; see Appendix S4 for details) within a buffer (of radius
 500 m, 1,000 m, 2,500 m, 5,000 m, and 10,000 m) from the 2006 National
 Land Cover Database at 99,997 locations (equally spaced) in the Platte
 River Recovery Implementation Program associated habitat area. For
 example, the column ‘water.500’ is the percentage of water within a 500 m
 radius buffer. The columns ‘lat’ and ‘long’ indicate the latitude and
 longitude of the location where the predictor was
 calculated.state
 covariatesThe file ‘state
 covariates.csv’ includes the percentage of nine habitat types (water,
 development, barren, forest, grassland, pasture, crop, woodywetland,
 emergentwetland;see Appendix S4 for details) within a buffer (of radius
 500 m, 1,000 m, 2,500 m, 5,000 m, and 10,000 m) from the 2006 National
 Land Cover Database at 100,044 locations (equally spaced) in Nebraska,
 USA. For example, the column ‘water.500’ is the percentage of water within
 a 500 m radius buffer. The columns ‘lat’ and ‘long’ indicate the latitude
 and longitude of the location where the predictor was
 calculated.whooping crane data with
 all covariatesThe file ‘whooping crane
 data with all covariates.csv’ includes information and predictors for 407
 whooping crane group locations in Nebraska from 1988‒2012. The file also
 contains 10,000 Monte Carlo integration points with predictors calculated
 from the 1992, 2001, and 2006 National Land Cover Database (NLCD) for a
 total of 30,000 points. The column ‘ID’ is the United States Fish and
 Wildlife Service unique identifier for the whooping crane group. The
 column ‘y’ indicates if the row is a record of a whooping crane group (y =
 1) or a Monte Carlo integration point (y = 0). The column ‘group.size’ is
 the number of whooping cranes in each group. The column ‘sample’ indicates
 if the whooping crane group location was used in the training (75%) or
 test (25%) partition of the data. The column ‘water.500’ is the percentage
 of water within a 500 m radius buffer around whooping crane group
 locations and Monte Carlo integration points. Names for other covariates
 of similar form to ‘water.500’ indicate the type of habitat and the buffer
 size (water, development, barren, forest, grassland, pasture, crop,
 woodywetland, and emergentwetland (see Appendix S4 for details); 500 m,
 1,000 m, 2,500 m, 5,000 m, and 10,000 m). The columns ‘day’, ‘month’ and
 ‘year’ identify the date the group was first observed on or a date
 associated with the Monte Carlo integration point. The column ‘population’
 is the estimated number of whooping cranes in the Aransas-Wood Buffalo
 population. The columns ‘lat’ and ‘long’ refer to the latitude and
 longitude of where the whooping crane group or Monte Carlo integration
 point was located. The column ‘accuracy’ is the accuracy of the whooping
 crane group location (2 = ‘1/2-Section’, 3 = ‘1/4-Section’, 5 = ‘section’,
 7 = ‘GPS’, and 10 = ‘Landmark’; see Appendix S1 of manuscript for more
 information and Hefley et al. (2014) citation in manuscript). The column
 ‘NLCDclass’ refers to the NLCD that was used to calculate the predictors
 (e.g., 1992). Note that Monte Carlo integration points (y=0) will have NA
 recorded in the columns ‘ID’, ‘group.size’, ‘sample’, and ‘accuracy’. To
 obtain the original whooping crane group location records and associated
 information for Nebraska please contact the author (Trevor Hefley) or the
 Nebraska Field Office of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service
 (http://www.fws.gov/nebraskaes/).Niobrara
 shapefilesA shapefile of a portion
 of the Niobrara National Scenic River, Nebraska.Niobrara.zipassociated habitat area shapefileA shapefile of the Platte River Recovery Implementation Program associated habitat area along the central Platte River, Nebraska.associated habitat area.zipNebraskaA shapefile of Nebraska, USA.