Modeling Tools

A USGS forecasting tool helps Everglades natural resource managers identify management actions that can benefit one or more species while quantifying the potential costs to others.

The Joint Ecosystem Modeling (JEM) team will develop species distribution models that incorporate hydrologic and habitat variables known to influence Cape Sable Seaside Sparrow occurrence.

We are working closely with multiple partners to provide updated information, model potential outcomes, and identify key uncertainties relevant to amphibian and reptile species proposed for listing in the northeast US. We also provide timely science to partners to assist in recovery of listed species, which may involve field research, data analysis, or decision support.

Joint Ecosystem Modeling (JEM) provides real-time habitat suitability models for species of interest in Everglades restoration planning, including the federally endangered Everglades snail kite.

The Sparrow Helper tool allows for the evaluation of water management scenarios by generating, plotting, and mapping hydrologic metrics across a range of time scales to predict impacts of proposed water depth changes to sparrow subpopulations.

WADEM (Wader Distribution Evaluation Modeling) is a JEM model that estimates species-specific habitat suitability across the landscape for Great Egret ( Ardea alba), White Ibis ( Eudocimus albus), and Wood Stork ( Mycteria americana).

Most states use outdated hardness-based criteria to regulate metals in surface waters. The slow adoption of new criteria based on biotic ligand models (BLMs) reflects uncertainty about whether these models can reliably predict toxic effects of metals on aquatic biota across the wide range of water quality conditions affecting bioavailability.

The largest recorded flood event on the Missouri River occurred during 2011. Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center recently concluded a study that evaluated effects of that flood on least tern and piping plover breeding populations. These federally-listed species nest on riverine sandbars and reservoir shorelines. Since construction of the dams on the Missouri River there have been few floods...

EverSnail, developed in collaboration with the University of West Florida, is an age- and size-structured spatially-explicit landscape model of native apple snails ( Pomacea paludosa).

Because the American alligator ( Alligator mississippiensis) is a keystone species of the Everglades ecosystem, managers need a way to quantitatively assess the effects of alternative restoration scenarios on alligators.

Models based upon coastal engineering equations have been developed to quantify wind fetch length and several physical wave characteristics including significant height, length, peak period, maximum orbital velocity, and shear stress These models, modified to operate using Environmental Systems Research Institute's ArcGIS 10.0/10.1 Geographic Information System platform, were used to quantify...

There are ongoing needs for analytical tools to investigate the cumulative effects of fluctuating water flow and depth. The Connectivity and Inundation Tool was developed at UMESC to help address these needs. The tool allows for the investigation of the historic hydrographs or proposed theoretical hydrographs. It does this by utilizing existing 2D hydrodynamic models that have been encapsulated...