Integrating Field-Based Sampling and Landscape Data for Regional Scale Assessments: Examples from the United States Mid-Atlantic Region

K. Bruce Jones 1, James D. Wickham 2, and Anne C. Neale 1

1 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development,
Exposure Research Laboratory, Las Vegas, Nevada USA
2 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development,
Exposure Research Laboratory, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina USA

Spatially explicit identification of status and changes in ecological conditions over large, regional areas is key to targeting and prioritizing areas for potential further study and environmental protection and restoration. A critical limitation to this point has been our ability to integrate field-based measures of ecological conditions, such as those being collected by the Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Program (EMAP), with spatially continuous landscape and biophysical data. Relatively new spatial data derived from satellite imagery and other sources, the development of statistical approaches and models, and geographic information systems make it possible to evaluate ecological conditions and changes at multiple scales over broad geographic regions. This presentation highlights results of three studies in the Mid-Atlantic Region of the United States where the aim of each of these studies was a regional scale assessment based on integration of field-based and spatially continuous data.

Keywords: regional assessment, landscape indicators, landscape models, integration, streams, breeding birds

Integrating Field-Based Sampling and Landscape Data for Regional Scale Assessments: Examples from the United States Mid-Atlantic Region

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