Land protection efforts represent large societal investments and are critical to biodiversity conservation. Land protection involves a complex mosaic of areas managed by multiple organizations, using a variety of mechanisms to achieve different levels of protection. We develop an approach to synthesize, describe, and map this land protection diversity over large spatial scales. We use cluster analysis to find distinct “communities” of land protection based on the organizations involved, the strictness of land protection, and the protection mechanisms used. We also associate identified land protection communities with socioenvironmental variables. Applying these methods to describe land protection communities in counties across the coterminous United States, we recognize five different land protection communities. Two land protection communities occur in areas with low human population size at higher elevations and include a large amount of protected land primarily under federal management. These two community types are differentiated from one another by the particular federal agencies involved, the relative contributions of smaller actors, and the amount of protection by designations vs. conservation easements or covenants. Three remaining land protection communities have less overall protection. Land in one community is primarily protected by federally managed rental contracts and government managed easements; another is managed by a diversity of non-federal actors through fee-ownership and easements; and the third stands out for having the lowest amount of formally recorded protection overall. High elevation and poor quality soils are over-represented in U.S. protected lands. Rental contracts help fill in gaps in counties with high productivity soil while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service fills in gaps in low-elevation counties. Counties with large numbers of threatened species have more and stricter protection, particularly by regional entities like water management districts. The ability to synthesize and map land protection communities can help conservation planners tailor interventions to local contexts, position local agencies to approach collaborations more strategically, and suggest new hypotheses for researchers regarding interactions among different protection mechanisms.

中文翻译：

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保护区、地役权和租赁合同数据揭示了美国五个土地保护社区

土地保护工作代表着巨大的社会投资，对生物多样性保护至关重要。土地保护涉及由多个组织管理的复杂区域，使用各种机制来实现不同级别的保护。我们开发了一种在大空间尺度上综合、描述和绘制这种土地保护多样性的方法。我们使用聚类分析根据所涉及的组织、土地保护的严格程度和所使用的保护机制来寻找不同的土地保护“社区”。我们还将确定的土地保护社区与社会环境变量联系起来。应用这些方法来描述美国本土各县的土地保护社区，我们识别出五个不同的土地保护社区。两个土地保护社区出现在人口较少的高海拔地区，包括大量主要受联邦管理的受保护土地。这两种社区类型因所涉及的特定联邦机构、较小参与者的相对贡献以及指定与保护地役权或契约的保护量而相互区分。剩余的三个土地保护社区总体保护较少。一个社区的土地主要受联邦管理的租赁合同和政府管理的地役权保护；另一个通过费用所有权和地役权由各种非联邦行为者管理；第三个突出的是总体上正式记录的保护量最低。高海拔和劣质土壤在美国受保护土地中的比例过高。租赁合同有助于填补土地生产力高的县的空白，而美国鱼类和野生动物管理局则填补了低海拔县的空白。拥有大量受威胁物种的县有更多和更严格的保护，特别是受到水管理区等区域实体的保护。综合和绘制土地保护社区图的能力可以帮助保护规划者根据当地情况定制干预措施，使当地机构更具战略性地开展合作，并为研究人员提出关于不同保护机制之间相互作用的新假设。鱼类和野生动物服务填补了低海拔县的空白。拥有大量受威胁物种的县有更多和更严格的保护，特别是受到水管理区等区域实体的保护。综合和绘制土地保护社区图的能力可以帮助保护规划者根据当地情况定制干预措施，使当地机构更具战略性地开展合作，并为研究人员提出关于不同保护机制之间相互作用的新假设。鱼类和野生动物服务填补了低海拔县的空白。拥有大量受威胁物种的县有更多和更严格的保护，特别是受到水管理区等区域实体的保护。综合和绘制土地保护社区图的能力可以帮助保护规划者根据当地情况定制干预措施，使当地机构更具战略性地开展合作，并为研究人员提出关于不同保护机制之间相互作用的新假设。