Is protected land doing its job?
Faculty, graduate and undergraduate student research collaboration
Working with Professor Bill Turner, graduate students Angela Dierks, William
McConnell and Dmitry Varlyguin, undergraduate HERO
fellowship recipient Melissa Floyd '01 developed a method to classify protected land based
on levels of biodiversity. Biodiversity refers to the ability of a landscape to support a
healthy range of plant and animal species. She then compared those levels with land
ownership and protection characteristics.
The establishment of protected land--protected from development--is seen by many
conservation and environmental organizations as an important factor in the maintenance of
biodiversity and a check on urban sprawl. However, protected land can differ in ownership
and degree of protection, both of which can affect levels of biodiversity.
What is protected land?
The definition of protected land differs among researchers. Floyd decided to
focus on protected parcels which met the Audubon Society’s definition of "truly
protected land" Land thus designated would be able to support healthy ecosystems over
a long-term period in a well-managed context.
Measuring biodiversity
Scientists use different methods to determine whether a particular parcel of land is
supportive of wildlife habitats and species diversity. One way is to count the number of
different types of land cover--a measure called land cover richness-- that exist within a
given piece of land. Different land covers (for example, forest, pasture, cropland)
provide different types of habitat areas. Thus, parcels with a high land cover richness
are assumed to have a higher level of biodiversity than parcels with just a few land
covers.
Data sources
Floyd used the following sources of information to gather data about the characteristics
of protected land in Worcester County.
- a map showing protected and open space land created by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts
MassGIS department
- a map from the federal government’s GAP (gaps in protection) program showing land
cover types
- information about protected land published in the Massachusetts Audubon Society’s
booklet, Losing Ground.
Procedure
Geographic information system software (GIS) was used to store and aid in the analysis of
the map data. Floyd followed the following steps
- First, from the protected and open space data data, she selected land parcels
permanently protected for conservation, conservation and recreation, or water supply and
eliminated parcels not meeting these criteria.
- Next, she overlaid parcels in step one with land cover data from the GAP program
to determine how many land cover types were contained in each parcel. This was used as a
measure of land cover richness.
- She created a graph showing number of parcels by owner (federal, state,
municipal, private for profit, private non profit) and type of protection (water,
conservation, conservation and recreation
- She created a table showing the number of parcels and average landcover
richness for each owner type
Conclusions
- Of all ownerers, the state owns the largest amount of protected land, however, a
significant percentage is for water supply protection.
- Privately-owned parcels have on average a higher land cover richness; a finding that
supports the Audubon Society’s conclusion that privately owned parcels will be an
important part of land protection.
- Larger parcels tend to have higher land cover richness.
- Protected land tends to be concentrated in the north-west part of the county.