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Conserving imperiled species in the Upper Tennessee River Basin: When we think of river life, for many of us a handful of animals may come to mind – trout, smallmouth bass, muskie. But in the Southern Appalachians, waters of the Upper Tennessee River Basin are alive with a whopping 255 species of fish and mussels.

Conservation Strategy for Imperiled Aquatic Species in the UTRB: The Strategy provides guidance to Field Offices in reevaluating current ("status quo") conservation approaches in order to deliver the most cost effective approach toward the conservation and management of imperiled freshwater fish and mussel species in the Upper Tennessee River Basin.

Publications & Outreach: A collection of our education, outreach, and workshop products along with other documents related to the work of the Appalachian LCC

A Stream Classification System for the Appalachian Landscape Conservation Cooperative: Unifying state-based stream classifications into a single consistent system, principal investigators at The Nature Conservancy developed a hierarchical classification system and map for stream and river systems for the Appalachian LCC that represents the region’s natural flowing-water aquatic habitats. This river classification information is needed to develop and implement instream flow standards and management recommendations so that environmental flows can become integral to all water management decisions from the onset.

Phase I: Alternatives for Climate Change Vulnerability Assessment: Expert Panel Findings PDF: In 2012, the Appalachian LCC tasked NatureServe with a two-phase project that explores the understanding of climate change in the Appalachian landscape. The first phase focused on assembling a panel of experts to provide guidance on a) prioritizing species and habitats to assess vulnerability to climate change; b) selecting approaches to conduct vulnerability assessments, and c) identifying appropriate climate data to use in the assessments. Using the recommendations of the Panel, the second phase of the research conducted vulnerability analyses on selected species and habitats, and provided results within the context of other existing assessments. This report summarizes Phase I of this effort.

Review of Subterranean Faunal Studies of the Appalachians and Models of Subterranean Species Richness PDF: Historically, the cave fauna, and any biota for that matter, were largely studied from a taxonomic perspective. Papers focused on a lineage or a set of closely related lineages because of the strictures of taxonomic expertise, the difficulty in collating and summarizing information for a variety of taxonomic groups, and because, until relatively recently, there was no research agenda that emphasized patterns of species richness. With the advent of interest in species diversity per se in the late 1960’s and especially with the interest in biodiversity and biodiversity hotspots in the late 1980’s, the focus changed. Studies of cave fauna reflected the changing research agendas. In this bibliographic review, we examine five areas of interest:

A Stream Classification for the Appalachian LCC PDF: A classification system and map was developed for stream and river systems in the Appalachian LCC region, encompassing parts of 17 states. The product is intended to complement state-based stream classifications by unifying them into a single consistent system that represents the region’s natural flowing-water aquatic habitats. The results can be used to understand ecological flow relationships and inform conservation planning for aquatic biodiversity in the region.

Quick Start Guide to Core Networks On DataBasin: This document is intended to guide you through accessing the Terrestrial and Aquatic Core Networks, two of the datasets that comprise the Connect the Connecticut gallery of science products on Data Basin.

Cartwright, Jennifer: Dr. Cartwright is an ecologist and GIS analyst with experience in climate-change ecology, soil science, remote sensing, ecological flow analysis, and habitat for rare and endemic plants.

Interactive Conservation Planning: The Appalachian LCC is currently engaged in an effort to develop a draft regional conservation plan for the Cooperative using an interactive and iterative spatial prioritization framework. Using available data and modeling approaches that are well supported in the literature, researchers from Clemson University are developing conservation planning models that include site selection, ecological threat assessments, and broad ranging habitat and ecological connectivity analyses.

Data Needs Assessment: The Data Needs Assessment project was undertaken to evaluate existing data for the Appalachian LCC region, package relevant datasets, review commonly used conservation planning tools, provide interpretive text and graphics for datasets and tools, and identify data gaps that could improve conservation planning in the Appalachians. A suite of core conservation planning products and data from principal investigators at Clemson University are now available to the Cooperative.

Data Needs Assessment: The Data Needs Assessment research project was undertaken to review the variety of resources on conservation planning to provide packages of products, data, and identified data gaps to improve conservation planning in the Appalachian LCC. A suite of core conservation planning products and data from principal investigators at Clemson University are now available to the Cooperative.

Interpretive Text and Graphics for AppLCC Web Portal (data): This document presents map images and text that describes the data that can be posted to the AppLCC web portal. The arrangement follows the layout of the Appalachain Landscape Conservation Cooperative GIS Datasets.

Interpretive Text and Graphics for AppLCC Web Portal (conservation planning tools): We have provided some interpretation material and text for conservation planning tools. These programs have been grouped into broad, sometime overlapping purposes. These brief descriptions of the various conservation planning tools can be put up on the AppLCC web portal, for users to get an idea about the tools available and what purposes they could serve. We have alo provided other links, where users can get detailed information about the tool.