Species habitat models are used in the third phase of the biologic assessment. Because the land cover data is designed to be used at fairly course scales this approach is somewhat problematic at finer county scales. I am presently working on a method to use fine-scale county data with state level Gap vertebrate models. There are several difficulties with this, including minimum range areas for each species, inherently high error rates, and general species-area relationship issues. If successful, this method will be of interest to those working with Gap models at fine scales.
Species often load on habitat in ways that are predictable from moisture gradients.
Wetland habitats can be shown to support large numbers of species and thus carry a higher importance for biodiversity. As polygons of habitat change size, shape, and adjacency, habitat quality will also change. There are opportunities at several stages of the biodiversity analysis for landscape factors to be assessed. I define areas of potential restoration as areas capable of increased biodiversity value with feasible levels of management change. In many cases, urban areas have low biodiversity value, and it is often not practical to improve these areas.