Detailed species sensitivity methods:

Materials:

1. ecosystem map (vector)
2. Species habitat range data (mammals, birds, and amphibians) (vector)

Steps (include retrieving data):

• Browse the InfoNatura database for all mammals that inhabit Panama, and select these files for download
• Combine all of the ~243 individual mammal-species files into one mammal file with ~243 polygons
• Calculate geometry (area) for these habitat ranges
• Rank these habitat ranges on a scale of 1-5, 5 being the smallest range and 1 being the largest range (=range_rank)
  • This allows for an equal playing ground for mammal, bird, and amphibian habitat ranges. Otherwise, gigantic bird habitat ranges would make miniscule amphibian ranges negligible.
• Spatial Join the habitat range data with the ecosystem map to result in a new Arc file with one entry for every species that lives in every ecosystem (possibility of ~243*1303 > 300,000 items)
  • This is a good point to divide the range_rank data into smaller groups, because a Spatial Join is a very labor-intensive process for the computer. For example, we divided the bird range_rank file into 10 separate Arc files and performed the Spatial Join
  • If you do this, you must Merge the species together before the Dissolve
• Dissolve the ecosystems back into one entry per ecosystem, maintaining a statistic for the mean habitat range_rank (now back to a file of 1303 entries and an average habitat range_rank)

• Repeat for birds and amphibians

• Add the mammal, bird, and amphibian range_ranks together, and re-scale to a rank of 1-5.
  • Remember, a rank of 1 means that there is lower vulnerability. According to our project, an ecosystem with a low vulnerability is one that is home to a high average habitat range. The most vulnerable ecosystems host species with the smallest habitat ranges.

Species sensitivity habitat ranges:

Data sources: UNESCO ecosystem map, NatureServe InfoNatura species habitat range maps