This data is a model of potential habitat connectivity for the Mojave desert tortoise (Gopherus agassizii) for the Mojave Basin and Range ecoregion. Methods for developing this data set: The connectivity modeling software Circuitscape 3.5.7 was used to develop the desert tortoise model. The two inputs needed to model tortoise habitat connectivity with this software were developed in ArcGIS 10. Habitat Input: The USGS model for desert tortoise habitat potential was used to create a series of 167 points representing tortoise habitat throughout the Mojave Basin and Range ecoregion. Areas with high habitat potential (0.7 or higher) were selected and converted to polygons. Polygons smaller than 4,000 acres were removed. Point centroids [...]
