A GIS Model of Habitat Suitability for Solanum conocarpum (Solanaceae) in St. John, US Virgin Islands

Francisco J. Vilella; Matthew D. Palumbo; Jonathan P. Fleming; Omar A. Monsegur

A GIS Model of Habitat Suitability for Solanum conocarpum (Solanaceae) in St. John, US Virgin Islands

Matthew D. Palumbo^1,2, Jonathan P. Fleming^1,3, Omar A. Monsegur⁴, and Francisco J. Vilella^5,*

¹Department of Wildlife, Fisheries and Aquaculture, Mississippi State University, Box 9690, Mississippi State, MS 39762, USA. ²Current address - Biology Department Room 2025, University of Western Ontario, London, ON N6A 3K7, Canada. ³Department of Geography, Box 5225, University of North Alabama, Florence AL 35632, USA. ⁴US Fish and Wildlife Service, Caribbean Ecological Services Field Office, Box 491, Boquerón, PR 00622, USA. ⁵US Geological Survey, Mississippi Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit, Box 9691, Mississippi State, MS 39762, USA. *Corresponding author.

Caribbean Naturalist, No. 36 (2016)

Abstract
Solanum conocarpum (Solanaceae) (Marron Bacora) is a rare, dry-forest shrub endemic to the island of St. John, US Virgin Islands, considered for listing under the Endangered Species Act. Given its status as a species of conservation concern, we incorporated environmental characteristics of 3 observed populations and 5 additional known locations into a geographic information system (GIS) analysis to create a habitat-suitability model for the species on the island of St. John. Our model identified 1929.87 ha of highly suitable and moderately suitable habitat. Of these, 1161.20 ha (60.2%) occurred within the boundaries of Virgin Islands National Park. Our model provides spatial information on potential locations for future surveys and restoration sites for this endemic species of the US Virgin Islands.

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