Habitat Suitability Index Models: Greater Prairie-Chicken (Multiple Levels of Resolution)

Prose, Bart

This document is part of the Habitat Suitability Index (HSI) Model Series [Biological Report 82(10)] which provides habitat information useful for impact assessment and habitat management. Several types of habitat information are provided. The Habitat Use Information Sections largely constrained to those data that can be used t o derive quantitative relationships between key environmental variables and habitat suitability. This information provides the foundation for the HSI model and may be useful in the development of other models more appropriate to specific assessment or evaluation needs. The HSI Model Sect ion documents the habitat mode l and includes information pertinent to its application. The model synthesizes the habitat use information into a framework appropriate for field application and is scaled to produce an index value between 0. 0 (unsuitable habitat) and 1.0 (optimum habitat). The HSI Mode l Section includes information about t he geographic range and seasonal application of the model, its current verification status, and a list of the model variables with recommended measurement techniques for each variable. The model is a formalized synthesis of biological and habitat information published in the scientific literature and may include unpublished information reflecting the opinions of identified experts. Habitat information about wildlife species frequently is represented by scattered data sets collected during different seasons and years and from different sites throughout the range of a species. The model presents this broad data base in a formal, logical, and simplified manner. The assumptions necessary for organizing and synthesizing the species-habitat information into the mode l are discussed. The model should be regarded as a hypothesis of species-habitat relationships and not as a statement of proven cause and effect relationships. The model may have merit in planning wildlife habitat research studies about a species, as well as in providing an estimate of the relative suitability of habitat for that species.