Stopping invaders at the doorstep: FORT researchers launch version 4.0 of the Invasive Species Habitat Tool
In a new version of the Invasive Species Habitat Tool (INHABIT 4.0), USGS scientists worked with resource managers to update the tool with occurrence, abundance, and high abundance predictions for 259 problematic invasive plant species in the contiguous United States.
INHABIT: A decision support tool for management of invasive plants
Non-native plants cause extensive economic and ecological damage across the United States. Once introduced, they can be difficult to control or eradicate, and it is often difficult to determine where these species will invade next. Invasive species managers need tools that allow for the early detection and rapid response to new invaders, and tools that can help them prioritize which areas to focus management actions. To aid in these efforts, USGS scientists worked with resource managers to build the Invasive Species Habitat Tool (INHABIT). INHABIT is one component of the National Early Detection and Rapid Response (EDRR) Framework, which is composed of several different projects that together provide tools to plan, detect, report, and respond to invasive species. Explore Siren, the data and knowledge hub of the National EDRR Framework.
At its core, INHABIT uses environmental data to map habitat suitability – that is, the likelihood a plant will grow in a certain area given seasonal temperatures, soil conditions, rainfall, and other factors – for terrestrial invasive plant species across the contiguous United States. The selection of species, choice of environmental predictors, and evaluation of model outputs included in INHABIT are guided and enhanced by feedback from taxa experts and invasive plant managers, and the tool is built based on an iterative feedback cycle between researchers and managers.
INHABIT 4.0 - Updates and New Features
Working closely with resource managers, the INHABIT team identified 1) 259 of the most problematic invasive terrestrial plant species with ample observation data in the contiguous United States, and 2) three habitat suitability measures of managerial importance: predicted invasive plant occurrence (present regardless of abundance information), predicted invasive plant abundance (over 5 percent cover), and predicted high invasive plant abundance (over 25 percent cover). The INHABIT team also updated the tool's interface, expanded management areas, and added additional filters for data summarization.
Tour the Updated App
On the main INHABIT web tool page you can view habitat suitability maps for any of the 259 invasive terrestrial plant species. Maps display continuous or integrated categorical habitat suitability according to the model output type of your choosing. You can also display the data used to train and test the INHABIT models, species ranges, or a selection from over 10,000 management area polygons.
Image: Screenshots from the Invasive Species Habitat Tool (INHABIT) 4.0 displaying continuous (left) and categorical (right) habitat suitability maps for cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) across the contiguous United States.
Image: A screenshot from the Invasive Species Habitat Tool (INHABIT) 4.0 displaying continuous habitat suitability for cheatgrass plus locations of data used to estimate habitat suitability for cheatgrass (white dots), and its current known range (dashed red line) within the contiguous United States.
On subsequent pages of the INHABIT tool, you can download data summarized by A) selected species for each management area and B) selected management area for all 259 species. In the Summaries by Species data table, the dataset can be filtered by admin area and state, and users can choose if they want broader or more targeted suitability measures. In the Summaries by Area data table, the dataset can be filtered to only include Doorstep species, that is, species that have predicted suitability within the management area and occur within 50 or 100 miles of the management area, but are not currently found within the management area. Users can again choose if they want the dataset to include broader or more targeted suitability measures.
Image: A screenshot from the Invasive Species Habitat Tool (INHABIT) 4.0 displaying continuous habitat suitability for cheatgrass (Bromus tectorum) across central Oregon. Darker, purple color indicates low habitat suitability and lighter, yellower colors indicate higher habitat suitability, black indicates environmental extrapolation is limited. White dots represent locations of data used to estimate habitat suitability. The green polygon represents Crater Lake National Park and a scale in the bottom left displays map distances. Below the map, a screenshot of the Summary by Management area tab displays data specific to Crater Lake National Park, including information about how many acres in the park are considered suitable habitat for cheatgrass (126,024 or 69% of the entire park), how many acres in the park are estimated to be suitable for high abundance in of cheatgrass (495), and the closest known cheatgrass occurrence (7 miles from the park), among other information relevant to managers. (Abbreviations: Est=Estimated; Occ=Occurrences; Dist=Distance). All data in the Summary by Management Area and Summary by Species tabs are downloadable.
For more information
If you have comments or questions, you can reach out to the INHABIT team here: gs-fort_iss_inhabit@usgs.gov and sign up for the INHABIT newsletter by clicking here.
Read more about INHABIT in the related content below.
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