Sky Islands: All Hill and DEM-Nation

"Monroe Mountain is a sky island, or an isolated area of high-elevation terrain surrounded on all sides by lower elevation landscapes. Sky Islands, which are found across the Basin and Range of the Intermountain West and are also seen in the arid landscapes of Southern Arizona and New Mexico, are particularly important for wildlife and vegetation. That’s because the plants and animals found in sky island ecosystems are often “trapped” in those locations. They don’t have anywhere else to go, since they occupy the only high-elevation areas around. As climate warms, sky islands become particularly important refuges for these organisms, and they’re at risk of disappearing altogether." (Belmont, Kasprak, Wheaton, 2021)

It's also the highest mountain road in Utah. (Dangerous Roads) While the photo below is supposed to be a road in Idaho, I have to wonder if there is a little something to this picture below it.

The goal of this assignment is to create three maps of differing raster resolution. Here they are. I made one in 10 M resolution from USGS data in the National Map Project, 5 M resolution, and 0.5 resolution. The 0.5 resolution wasn't the best because I defined the raster really specifically and so the ArcGIS Topography Basemap shows up on the right when I didn't need it too. I think one of the things I noticed the most is how the nearest peak to the northwest of Signal Peak (the other white one), is how much more refined it became when I used the next level of granular resolution. You can see how the innermost and highest elevation goes from an irregularly shaped and elongated ellipse to a fishing hook shape. However there is something to using too granular of detail. It can be hard to tell at 0.5 meter resolution what is where. Too much information crammed on to one page can distract from the overall mission of preserving the Sky Island. However, the 10 M resolution may be too little information for NPS and Utah officials looking to f. It may be good for upper management without the education or experience, looking to get a big picture look at the issue to make large-scale policy decisions. It may also be good for a map of the state. The midsize one might be good for middle management needing a more granular approach but still needing to see the 15,000 foot view.

I would argue that the best DEM would be to for plant elevation would be a close up of the 0.5 M DEM. It would allow a scientist to see what exact plants, combined with biogeography data would grow in the range of 7,000 to 9,000 meters.

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