EnviroAtlas - Biodiversity Metrics by 12-digit HUC for the Southeastern United States

This EnviroAtlas dataset was produced by a joint effort of New Mexico State University, US EPA, and the US Geological Survey (USGS) to support research and online mapping activities related to EnviroAtlas. Ecosystem services, i.e., services provided to humans from ecological systems, have become a key issue of this century in resource management, conservation planning, and environmental decision analysis. Mapping and quantifying ecosystem services have become strategic national interests for integrating ecology with economics to help understand the effects of human policies and actions and their subsequent impacts on both ecosystem function and human well-being. Some aspects of biodiversity are valued by humans in varied ways, and thus are important to include in any assessment that seeks to identify and quantify the benefits of ecosystems to humans. Some biodiversity metrics clearly reflect ecosystem services (e.g., abundance and diversity of harvestable species), whereas others may reflect indirect and difficult to quantify relationships to services (e.g., relevance of species diversity to ecosystem resilience, or cultural and aesthetic values). Wildlife habitat has been modeled at broad spatial scales and can be used to map a number of biodiversity metrics. We map 14 biodiversity metrics reflecting ecosystem services or other aspects of biodiversity for all vertebrate species except fish. Metrics include species richness for all vertebrates, specific taxon groups, harvestable species (i.e., waterfowl, furbearers, small game, and big game), threatened and endangered species, and state-designated species of greatest conservation need, as well as a metric for ecosystem (i.e., land cover) diversity. The EnviroAtlas (https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas) allows the user to interact with a web-based, easy-to-use, mapping application to view and analyze multiple ecosystem services for the contiguous United States. The dataset is available as downloadable data (https://edg.epa.gov/data/Public/ORD/EnviroAtlas) or as an EnviroAtlas map service. Additional descriptive information about each attribute in this dataset can be found in its associated EnviroAtlas Fact Sheet (https://www.epa.gov/enviroatlas/enviroatlas-fact-sheets).

                                            {
  "fn": "U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development-Sustainable and Healthy Communities Research Program, EnviroAtlas",
  "@type": "vcard:Contact",
  "hasEmail": "mailto:enviroatlas@epa.gov"
}
                                        

                                            []
                                        

                                            [
  "Ecosystem",
  "Environment",
  "12-digit HUCs",
  "Biodiversity",
  "Biota",
  "Conservation",
  "Ecology",
  "Ecosystem Services",
  "Endangered",
  "EnviroAtlas",
  "Environment",
  "Environmental Atlas",
  "Habitat",
  "Land",
  "Land Cover",
  "Modeling",
  "Natural Resources",
  "Recreation",
  "Supply of Ecosystem Services",
  "Threatened",
  "Species",
  "Alabama",
  "Florida",
  "Georgia",
  "Kentucky",
  "Louisiana",
  "Mississippi",
  "North Carolina",
  "South Carolina",
  "Tennessee",
  "United States",
  "Virginia",
  "West Virginia"
]
                                        

                                            []
                                        

                                            {
  "name": "U.S. EPA Office of Research & Development (ORD) - National Exposure Research Laboratory (NERL)",
  "@type": "org:Organization"
}