Mapping Habitable Range Shifts of Salt Marsh Bird's Beak Due to Sea Level Rise (ArcGIS)

Elizabeth Crook, University of California-Irvine, e.crook@uci.edu and Hannah Spear, University of California-Irvine

Summary

Salt Marsh Bird's Beak is an endangered plant species that is endemic to the Upper Newport Bay of Newport Beach, California. Because this rare and important species occupies a narrow ecological niche, as sea level rises in response to climate change, the habitat range of Bird's Beak will likely shift and result in further species decline. In this activity, students work with occurrence data of this rare plant to create species distribution maps using ArcGIS. Students are given shapefiles of bird's beak occurrence data, and then overlay the occurrence data with LiDAR data to determine the current habitat range of Bird's Beak above sea level. Students are then given projections of sea level rise for the Newport Bay, and are asked to project in ArcGIS the new habitable range of Bird's Beak for 1 of the 5 sea level rise scenarios for the year 2100. Finally, students are asked to calculate the difference in total habitable area from present day to the year 2100 based on their sea level rise projection scenario.

Geospatial, Impacts of climate change, Climate Change, Habitats, ...(more) | College Lower (13-14), College Upper (15-16)

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Context

Audience

This activity was designed for an introductory ArcGIS environmental science class to practice important mapping skills like map overlays and raster calculations. Basic knowledge of the program is necessary to complete this activity, like how to unzip and load files into ArcGIS. However, step by step directions are provided, and the activity could be completed by a relative novice to ArcGIS.

The activity has been used as a laboratory/homework assignment in an introductory ArcGIS course for Earth/Environmental Science majors. Students are typically upper division students, and therefore are comfortable with important concepts like climate change and shifting climate patterns before they complete this activity. Students typically have little prior mapping experience, but they are familiar with basic ArcGIS program commands and query language. Because the activity uses raster data, it usually takes place in week 7-8 of a 10 week course, when raster overlays and raster calculations are introduced. One of the primary purposes of the activity is to reinforce skills learned in Arc while piquing the interest of students looking for ways to apply ArcGIS to future careers in the climate sciences.

Skills and concepts that students must have mastered

Students typically have little prior mapping experience, but they are familiar with very basic ArcGIS program commands. Students should at least have some experience in opening files, connecting folders, searching for tools, and creating basic maps using shapefiles. While these skills are described in a step-by-step fashion within the activity worksheet, students who have basic mapping skills will find the activity easier to complete and the instructions easier to follow. This activity could easily be adapted to students with no prior mapping experience, but further instructions should be added to make the activity slightly more accessible.
Students should also be familiar with basic climate change concepts (i.e. sea level rise) and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) projection scenarios. If students are unfamiliar with these concepts, they will still be able to complete the activity but the ultimate learning outcomes will not be particularly relevant.

How the activity is situated in the course

The activity is a standalone assignment/laboratory designed to pull together many skills learned in a GIS course, and often occurs in week 7 or 8 of a 10 week introductory course. Students are first given a short background lecture on Boolean overlay and its uses with raster files. This lecture, however, is unnecessary to complete the activity (but is helpful to understand the concepts of how certain skills, like Boolean overlay, can be used to make predictions in the climate sciences).

Goals

Content/concepts goals for this activity

Students will be able to:
- Use a LiDAR DEM file to create a hillshade, and then use a clip tool to clip the hillshade to the study area.
- Use shapefiles of occurrence data and the DEM raster data to find elevations of occurrences to determine the current habitable range of Salt Marsh Bird's Beak.
- Create new rasters using Boolean overlay to create a model for the current habitable range.
- Use this habitable range and sea level rise projections to create a new, shifted habitat for the Bird's Beak in the future.
- Calculate the difference in area between current and future habitat ranges.

Higher order thinking skills goals for this activity

Students should be able to make predictions for how future sea level rise scenarios will impact the habitable range of a rare and endemic plant species. They should be able to compare current habitat ranges with their future models to predict where the plant will need to move over the coming century to prevent species collapse. Therefore, students must apply fundamental mapping skills in ArcGIS to a conservation/land management plan for future conservation of the species and habitat restoration.

Other skills goals for this activity

Description and Teaching Materials

Students will need to be provided the SMBB_Lab folder, which contains all of the necessary files to complete the maps. Remind students that these files should only be opened in ArcGIS. These are usually uploaded to a course learning management system (LMS) for the students to download as a zipped file, along with the student worksheet.

This activity should be done independently (homework) or during a lab period (partner pairs) and could take approximately 2 hours to complete, depending on student skill level and speed. When completed, students should have a document of their completed worksheet, including any screen captures of the maps they created, and the answers to the critical thinking questions.

Assessment

Assessment is based on the final map images provided by the student and the numbers they have calculated based on their specific raster models. An answer key to the worksheet is provided.