To meet national objectives, gap analysis is conducted at the state level while maintaining consistency with national standards. The Mississippi Gap Analysis Project (MS-GAP) was a highly interactive and cooperative endeavor that involved essentially all state and federal natural resource agencies, conservation organizations, and universities. Further, many private landowner groups and individuals assisted with information and participation in work groups. Specific research objectives of MS-GAP were to: (1) prepare a vegetation community type map for Mississippi based on recent remotely sensed land cover data and an accepted vegetation classification system; (2) estimate current distribution delineations for selected vertebrates to predict recent species occurrence at sample areas stratified by vegetation community type; (3) compile delineations of public and private land ownership boundaries categorized by level or extent of conservation provisions; and (4) consolidate component data in a GIS and perform analysis of patterns of plant and animal species richness relative to defined levels of land management attention to diversity conservation. This research included all of Mississippi, a 123,514 km2 landscape that reflects diverse geologic and natural history. Mississippi’s diverse array of species is attributable to the complex connection of biogeographic components from southeastern United States including the Mississippi Alluvial valley, Hilly Coastal Plain, and Gulf Coastal Plain.
