Birds and the Bakken: Integration of oil well, land cover, and species distribution data to inform conservation in areas of energy development

The goal of this project was to develop a novel methodology to combine the USGS Gap Analysis Program (GAP) national land cover and species distribution data with disturbance data to describe and predict how disturbance affects biodiversity. Specifically, the project team presented a case study examining how energy development in the Williston Basin can affect grassland birds; however, the methods developed are scalable and transferable to other types of habitat conversion (anthropogenic or natural), regions, and taxa. This project had six key components:

1. Develop a dataset delineating all oil well pads in the Williston Basin.
2. Develop a habitat conversion tool to determine the amount and previous land cover from spatially explicit disturbance.
3. Develop a species distribution tool that maps species richness for all input USGS GAP species distributions (two maps for the case study area: all avian species and grassland birds).
4. Develop an ecological effects tool that maps ecological effects (predation/nest success, non-native vegetation, avoidance, and noise in the case study) adjacent to spatially explicit disturbance data.
5. Develop a habitat suitability tool that integrates the outputs from the species distribution and ecological effects tools to determine habitat suitability following disturbance.
6. Develop models to predict habitat and biodiversity loss from predicted future disturbance. 

It is the project team’s expectation that the generated maps and models can assist resource managers by identifying sensitive, biodiverse areas. 

Principal Investigator : Todd M Preston, Rachel T Bolus
Cooperator/Partner : Michael Ward, Kevin J Gergely