p^*"*^ r usas EPA/600/C-05/005 THE SOUTHWEST REGIONAL GAP PROJECT: PLANT COMMUNITIES OF NEVADA William G. Kepner1, Todd D. Sajwaj2, Daniel T. Heggem1, and David F. Bradford1 HJ.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development, National Exposure Research Laboratory, Environmental Sciences Division, Las Vegas, Nevada 89119, University of Idaho, College of Natural Resources, Moscow, Idaho 83844 «,"*»• OREGON IDAHO - &ttZ3CL3R ^pM^antspfimsvnnvsenximm V> „!„„ Ecological Systems of Nevada 1 he Southwest Regional Gap Analysis Project used contemporary (1999- 2001) Landsat 7 Enhanced Thematic Mapper satellite im- agery from three seasons, i.e., spring (leaf-on), summer (peak greenness), and fall (leaf-off). The in- * formation comprised 63 triplicate scenes for the state of Nevada and they were com- posited into biogeographically unique map- ping units that span political boundaries of the adjacent states. Vegetation mapping was conducted at the "ecological systems" level of the National Veg- etation Classification provided by NatureServe. The data * set used to "train" the imagery contains over 17,500 ground-truth sites collected across the state, and it includes 73 ' .Panrui natural and seminatural ecological systems. The funding to un- A. dertake this project was provided by the national Gap Analysis Pro- gram of the USGS-Biological Resources Discipline and the Landscape Ecology Branch of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Invalu- able assistance was received from the U.S. Bureau of Land Management/Nevada State Office and the Eastern Nevada Landscape Coali- tion. This land cover map and other geospatial data for Nevada can be found online at: http://www.epa.gov/nerlesdl/land-sci/gap.htm 5 . ------- |