This data set is one of the outputs of Carlos Carrol's work on focal species in the Northern Appalachians. Static habitat suitability models for lynx, marten, and wolf were fed through a spatially explicit population model (SEPM), called PATCH, to predict source and sink habitat areas across the landscape. The static models for marten were based on six categories of data: vegetation (percent conifer, percent regenerating forest), satellite imagery (brightness, greenness, wetness), geographic (northing, easting, distance to ocean), topographic (latitude adjusted elevation, ruggedness), climatic (average annual snowfall), and human impact (trapping intensity, road density, habitat effectiveness, jurisdiction). PATCH was then able to use these static habitat models to simulate a number of scenarios, including variations in trapping intensity, forestry intensity, and weather patterns due to climate change.
This data layer illustrates a scenario of increased timber harvest, doubling the percentage of regenerating forest with a corresponding decrease in the ratio of mixed to coniferous forest. When compared with the timber restoration scenario, this data set can show the potential effect of timber harvest on marten source and sink habitat in the Northern Appalachian Ecoregion.