3.2.5: Data Dive- Wildlife Corridors

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Page ID: 70799

Melissa Ha and Rachel Schleiger
Yuba College & Butte College via ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative

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Overview

In 1999 the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan was created to help wildlife populations and habitats. As a result of this plan, biologists were able to identify landscapes with wildlife barriers and get funding to install wildlife corridors. On State Route (SR) 77 two wildlife corridors were installed, one overpass and one underpass. These corridors were the first of their kind to be built in the Sonoran Desert so it was difficult to estimate what level of success they would have. As such, a monitoring plan was put in place to document which species used the corridors and how often they used it as time passed since their installation. The figure below illustrates the usage of the wildlife corridors 2+ years after their installation:

Line graph illustrating trends for increased use after installation of wildlife cooridor for both underpasses and overpasses. — Figure \(\PageIndex{a}\): Total wildlife crossings after installation for overpass and underpass on SR 77. Graph by Rachel Schleiger (CC-BY-NC) modified from data in Santa Catalina - Tortolita Mountain Corridor Progress Report

Questions

What is the independent (explanatory) variable and the dependent (response) variable?
What question(s) are the authors trying to answer with this graph?
Does this graph show a positive or negative relationship between the variables? Support your answer by referring to trends observed in the graph.
Do you think like the authors are satisfied with the results in the graph? Why?
How can we use the results of this graph to inform future wildlife corridor installations?
What information/patterns is not clear from this graph?

Raw Data For Above Graph(s)

Table \(\PageIndex{a}\): Raw data for total wildlife crossings after installation for overpass and underpass on SR 77. Graph by Rachel Schleiger (CC-BY-NC) modified from data in Santa Catalina - Tortolita Mountain Corridor Progress Report

Month	Overpass	Underpass
April	0	0
June	150	150
August	249	250
October	296	294
December	600	500
February	750	502
April	1000	600
June	1200	605
August	1800	750
October	1550	950
December	1700	1050
February	2000	1500
April	2400	1850
June	2500	2000
August	2700	2250
October	3000	2500
December	3200	2750

Attribution

Rachel Schleiger (CC-BY-NC)