Aquatic Native Fish Richness - ACE [ds2744]

Aquatic Native Fish Richness, Areas of Conservation Emphasis (ACE), version 3.0.

Aquatic native species richness is a measure of species biodiversity, and is one measurement used to describe the distribution of overall species biodiversity in California for the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Areas of Conservation Emphasis Project (ACE). Other measures of aquatic species biodiversity included in the ACE aquatic biodiversity summary are aquatic rare species richness and aquatic irreplaceability. Here, native species richness represents a count of the total number of native aquatic species potentially present in each watershed based on species range and distribution information. This dataset depicts the distribution of richness of all aquatic species in the state, both common and rare. The data can be used to view patterns of species diversity, and to identify areas of highest native richness across the state. Users can view a list of species that contribute to the richness counts for each watershed.

The aquatic native species richness summary depicts relative diversity within watersheds across the state. To correct for differences in the number of taxa per taxonomic group, the data was normalized by taxonomic group (see Data Sources and Models Used, below). The aquatic native species richness by taxonomic group layers give a statewide overview of richness for each individual taxonomic group, showing counts of species per watershed for aquatic amphibians, fish, aquatic invertebrates, and aquatic reptiles.