Kevin J Gergely, PhD
Science and Products
Species Vision
Our goal is to build species range and predicted habitat maps to support state, regional, and national biodiversity assessments for the conservation status of native vertebrate species and to facilitate the application of this information to land management activities. These data are intended to describe patterns of species geographic location and basic habitat associations.
PAD-US Vision
What if you could find the location of any park or protected open space in the United States? By zooming in on a map you could see detailed boundaries and all nearby protected lands, and you could analyze these data to inform decisions about conservation, recreation, or land use planning.
Land Cover Vision
The goal of the GAP/LANDFIRE National Terrestrial Ecosystems 2011 data is to provide accurate, seamless data on the vegetation and land cover of the United States. The map legend based on NatureServe’s ecological system classification scheme provides detailed information on the vegetation types at a plant community level.
The Gap Analysis Process and Importance
A Gap Analysis consists of mapping three data layers — land cover, predicted distributions of vertebrate species, and a stewardship layer depicting both location and conservation status of protected areas. This data is then assessed to determine how much of a target species’ (plant or animal) habitat is in conserved areas.
Major Update for America’s Inventory of Parks and Other Protected Areas: Protected Areas Database of the United States
A new version of the Protected Areas Database of the U.S. (PAD-US), has major federal, state and easement updates, an easier-to-use data structure, new web services, national-scale printable maps, and more. USGS Technical Announcement