*2.5. Protected Areas Maps*

The intersect tool in geographic information systems (ArcGIS) was used to overlap the present potential distribution consensus model with the CIMP5 RCP 4.5 2070 consensus model to determine the portions of the study area that were lost as a result of climate change. The CMIP5 RCP 4.5 2070 consensus model was chosen as it had the highest calculated loss of distribution. The area that was lost as a result of climate change was overlapped with polygons of protected areas in Texas and Mexico using ArcGIS to assess if the protected areas were affected by climate change. The protected areas in the U.S. were TPWD lands, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) Lower Rio Grande Valley National Wildlife Refuge tracts (LRGV NWR) downloaded from the TPWD GIS database, while for Mexico we used Natural Protected Areas and Priority Terrestrial Regions from the CONABIO data base.
