Species Biodiversity - ACE [ds2769]

Species Biodiversity, Areas of Conservation Emphasis (ACE), version 3.0.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s (CDFW) Areas of Conservation Emphasis (ACE) Species Biodiversity dataset is a summary of the best available information on species biodiversity in California, and is based on species occurrence and distribution information for amphibians, aquatic macroinvertebrates, birds, fish, mammals, plants, and reptiles. It synthesizes information from the ACE Terrestrial Biodiversity Summary, which is compiled by hexagon, and the Aquatic Biodiversity Summary, which is compiled by watershed. The biodiversity summary combines three measures of biodiversity: 1) native species richness, which represents overall native diversity of all species in the state, both common and rare; 2) rare species richness, which represents diversity of rare species; and, 3) irreplaceability, which is a weighted measure of endemism. The data can be used to view patterns of overall species diversity, and identify areas of highest biodiversity, taking into account common, rare, and rare endemic species.

This dataset displays relative biodiversity values for each ecoregion of the state, so that the areas of highest diversity within each ecoregion are highlighted. The data is normalized so that areas of highest diversity for each taxonomic group contribute equally to the final map (see Data Sources and Models Used section). The attribute table for this dataset includes the final ranks for all ACE datasets, providing an overview of all ACE scores for an area.