Brief
Determined the probable nesting locations of the rare marbled murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) in the Navarro River watershed.
A suitability analysis is used to help answer the question of what locations meet a set of conditions. In this suitability analysis, I determined the probable nesting location of the rare marbled murrelet. The marbled murrelet is a secretive bird, but it is thought to make its nests in old growth forests on steep (>20 degrees), west-facing slopes within 35km of the ocean at or around the 150m elevation. The completion of this spatial analysis required a number of steps. First, I used a digital elevation model to generate hillshade, slope, and aspect grides. Then, I loaded coastal distance and old growth grids. Then, I queried the grids to determine probable nesting locations based on habitat parameters. Finally, I displayed the resulting habitat patches draped over the digital elevation model with hillshade as a brightness theme and elevation contours overlaid.
The tools I used include setting Data Frame Projection, setting Geoprocessing Environments, Spatial Analyst: Create Histogram, Spatial Analyst: Slope, Spatial Analyst: Aspect, Spatial Analyst: Hillshade, Spatial Analyst: Contour, Spatial Analyst: Raster Calculator, Symbology, Image Analysis.