Geospatial Analysis

The Joro team brings more than 25 years of experience directly related to the:

  • monitoring, research, and analyses of habitat selection and wildlife population dynamics (including growth rates) for wildlife species;

  • assessment of the natural range of variability of vegetation communities; and

  • cumulative effects of human development (past and future footprints.

Specific activities have included recruitment/survival studies, group counts, mortality investigations, and the extensive collection and analysis of spatial and temporal caribou and moose data, i.e., the determination of:

  • home range sizes (MCP), summer and winter core use areas (kernels), path trajectory, point density, and the documentation of both the locations of calving sites and assessments of neonatal calf survival.

    The analyses of spatial and temporal data have also been provided for the determination of:

  • habitat selection, resource selection, and habitat use definitive to calving sites.

Joro typically used an integrated approach to data analysis including:

  • GIS applications including ArcMap, ARCGISPro, ARCGIS Online, etc.

  • ALCES Online

  • Cran R Scripts and analysis packages

Types of Analysis (examples):

  • Step Analysis including parturition and calf survival, based on female movement patterns.

  • Annual survival rates calculated using a biological year commencing to determine average calving date as determined using step function analyses.

  • Calculation of Lambda (survival and recruitment) rates on wildlife populations annual survival rates calculated using a biological year.

  • Defining biological seasons using telemetry and observation data.

  • Traditional knowledge-based Habitat Suitability Index (HSI) models.

  • Science-based habitat models including the development of Resource Selection Functions (RSF) models.

  • Population range assessments including Minimum Convex Polygons and Fuzzy Cluster Analysis of telemetry data. 

  • Determination of seasonal and overall core use and areas of interest for various environmental variables including animal locations, habitat, overlap of habitat and human disturbance. 

  • Linear Corridor Analysis and animal movement assessment across landscapes and the potential disturbance through removal of functional habitat and identification of important sites for mitigation or avoidance. 

  • Human and natural disturbance assessment within the region of interest and comparisons to “predevelopment” conditions.

  • Range of Natural Variation of forest and vegetation including back casting and looking into future habitat states.

  • Climate Change Modeling using globally accepted Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) models integrated into Joro systems.  

Click here to view some selected examples and figures.