Welcome!
The intent of an aquatic Gap Analysis Project (GAP) is to examine the current level of aquatic biodiversity within a system to identify gaps in distribution and protection of species so managers, planners, scientists, and policy makers may use these data to make better-informed decisions or to focus future research. The Lower Colorado River Aquatic GAP (LCRGAP) was initiated in 2004 as a one-year feasibility study to gather existing datasets, and to evaluate the stakeholder interest in participating in the development and use of Aquatic LCRGAP products. Interest levels from stakeholders was strong enough to justify continuation of the LCRGAP. We have compiled the environmental data for this project and have summarized those at the stream segment, catchment, AES (see report), and upstream watershed scales. We are in the process of creating predictive species distrbution models for native and non-native fishes. The final stage will be to define conservation units for the basin based on native biodiversity and threats to the system including non-native fishes. Products from this assessment will include data layers of species distributions based on available informationa, a hierarchy of spatial scales linked to summary information for environmental and anthropogenic metrics, a database of potential areas for conservation or rehabilitation of aquatic systems, and an on-line searchable database of relevant literature for the Colorado River with a focus on the Lower Colorado (most of the distributable documents will be available as pdfs).
Updated 17-Apr-2009