Anthropogenic Water Body Mapping: Primary Historic Range of Topeka shiner

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The activities completed through this Cooperative Agreement will support collaborative Topeka shiner recovery efforts by USFWS (ES, PFW, NWRs), KWPT, and multiple NGO partners. The agreement that will result from this funding opportunity will provide financial support from U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to the recipient to conduct research necessary to support Topeka shiner efforts by USFWS, NPS, KDWPT, TNC, and other partners. To successfully implement Topeka shiner recovery efforts, this project is consistent with implementation of the USFWS Strategic Habitat Conservation (SHC) business model. This business model is built on four critical elements. These critical elements include: Biological Planning, Conservation Design, Research/Monitoring/Evaluation, and Implementation/Project Delivery. When implemented these elements provide a feedback mechanism that refines conservation delivery through time. This agreement will facilitate funding to support the critical elements of the SHC business model. This agreement will support the biological planning element through; creation of current and highly accurate spatial data representing anthropogenic water bodies throughout the primary historic range of Topeka shiner. These data will be used in analyses by a KSU Ph.D. candidate who is conducting a FWS funded project which will include collection of survey and census data relevant to priority species (Topeka shiner), analysis of survey and census data to develop and refine population distributions, assessment of local and landscape habitat relationships, development of population based habitat goals, collection and analysis of geospatial data to document habitat/landscape conditions, development of biologically driven spatially explicit habitat models for species of concern, development of GIS data that inventory habitat conditions and occurrence of Topeka shiner. Conservation design activities supported will include: Data provided through this project will be used in development of Topeka shiner distribution models across the primary historic range of Kansas; support of GIS and modeling capacities (staff/hardware/software). These data and models will be used to support development of decision support tools to guide existing conservation programs; evaluation of existing programs to determine eligibility across the landscape; refinement and development of new programs that will address unmet conservation needs. Research, inventory, and monitoring projects will be supported to inform and refine conservation actions. Project categories will include: collection of species occurrence data; inventory of habitat conditions; and analysis of biotic and abiotic data to understand annual habitat variability. In addition monitoring and inventory data will be collected to develop and refine population goals and habitat targets for the region. Research and monitoring projects that provide a quantitative assessment of restoration, management, and habitat enhancement practices will also be supported. In addition, projects that document annual habitat conditions assess climatology and habitat relationships, and document landscape scale changes in habitat conditions will be coordinated.

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