Publication Details

Integrating fine-scale soil data into species distribution models: preparing Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO) data from multiple counties

Year Published

2013

Publication

Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-122. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station. 70 p.

Abstract

Fine-scale soil (SSURGO) data were processed at the county level for 37 states within the eastern United States, initially for use as predictor variables in a species distribution model called DISTRIB II. Values from county polygon files converted into a continuous 30-m raster grid were aggregated to 4-km cells and integrated with other environmental and site condition values for use in the DISTRIB II model. In an effort to improve the prediction accuracy of DISTRIB II over our earlier version of DISTRIB, fine-scale soil attributes replaced those derived from coarse-scale soil (STATSGO) data. The methods used to prepare and process the SSURGO data are described and geoprocessing scripts are provided.

Keywords

habitat suitability; raster aggregation; Soil Data Viewer; geographic information system; eastern United States

Citation

Peters, Matthew P.; Iverson, Louis R.; Prasad, Anantha M.; Matthews, Steve N. 2013. Integrating fine-scale soil data into species distribution models: preparing Soil Survey Geographic (SSURGO) data from multiple counties. Gen. Tech. Rep. NRS-122. Newtown Square, PA: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Northern Research Station. 70 p. https://doi.org/10.2737/NRS-GTR-122.

Last updated on: January 22, 2014