WILDLIFE HABITAT EXPLORER

In recent years, many maps of biodiversity have been produced where colors represent species richness or priorities for representing species among sites. Two natural questions arise when viewing these maps: “which species occur there?” and “which species make this place a priority?” Answering these simple questions for a large area with hundreds of species requires complex data wrangling. The Wildlife Habitat Explorer makes answering these questions much easier. In this interactive map, we invite users to explore maps of “species richness” (number of species with overlapping habitat in a given location, Dietz et al. 2020) and “biodiversity priority” (rank of an area for maximizing the representation of all species, according to the conservation-planning software Zonation, Belote et al. 2021). Data for the contiguous United States were derived from US Gap Analysis Project suitable habitat rasters for terrestrial vertebrates (obtained 2022-03-15). Data for Alaska depict birds, mammals, and amphibians and were derived from the Alaska Gap Analysis Project (obtained 2022-02-15). To move the map, left-click and drag. The map can be tilted using the right mouse button.

Using the Gap Analysis Projects’s maps of suitable habitat, we provide richness and biodiversity priorities for all terrestrial vertebrate species (mammals, birds, amphibians, reptiles) and those classified as species of conservation concern (SCC). Use the "analysis layers" dropdown in the upper left to choose among richness and priority maps.

After exploring the richness and priority maps, open the "query species" tab on the right side of the map to explore species habitat. Users can select the “polygon tool” to outline an area and see which species occur there. Species can be sorted by the proportion of their total habitat, the area of their habitat, or taxonomically. Some places are critical for endemic species with small ranges. This explorer allows users to identify which species rely on those critical areas.

To explore Alaska data, use the “change region” selector in the lower left.