Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Rocky Mountain CESU

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The US Geological Survey, Northern Rocky Mountain Science Center (NOROCK), is offering a funding opportunity to develop a methodology to combine data on habitat conversion and species distribution to describe and predict how disturbance affects biodiversity within the Williston Basin. The methods developed should be scalable and transferable to other types of habitat conversion, regions and taxa. Specifically, the Center would like to have the following products developed from this opportunity: dataset delineating all oil well pads in the Williston Basin; a total species distribution map detailing species richness for all avian species and a weighted species distribution map prioritizing species of concern; an ecological effects layer mapping ecological effects (i.e., avoidance, reproductive success, etc.) in relation to energy development; habitat suitability maps integrating total and weighted species distribution maps with the ecological effects layer; models to predict habitat and biodiversity loss from future energy development.

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