Terrestrial Native Reptile Richness - ACE [ds2708]

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

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 terrestrial species biodiversity included in the ACE terrestrial biodiversity summary are rare species richness and terrestrial endemism. Here, native species richness represents a count of the total number of native terrestrial species potentially present in each hexagon based on species range and distribution information. This dataset depicts the distribution of richness of all native 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 and in each ecoregion. Users can view a list of species that contribute to the richness counts for each hexagon.

The native species richness summary depicts relative diversity within each ecoregion across the state, so that areas of highest diversity within each ecoregion are highlighted. To achieve this, the data in the summary layer was normalized by taxonomic group and by ecoregion (see Data Sources and Models Used, below). The native species richness by taxonomic group layers give a statewide overview of richness for each individual taxonomic group, showing counts of species per hexagon for amphibians, birds, mammals, and reptiles; and counts of species per Jepson ecoregion for plants. In addition to overall native species richness, separate counts of native game species and climate vulnerable species are available.