Assessing Multi-scale Reptile and Amphibian Biodiversity: Mojave Ecoregion Case Study
Citation:
Kepner, W., K. Boykin, A. McKerrow, AND A. Neale. Assessing Multi-scale Reptile and Amphibian Biodiversity: Mojave Ecoregion Case Study. Desert Tortoise Council (DTC) Symposium, Las Vegas, NV, February 23 - 25, 2018.
Impact/Purpose:
Presentation on the Mojave Ecoregion Case Study that uses deductive habitat models to measure and map reptile and amphibian biodiversity.
Description:
The ability to assess, report, map, and forecast the life support functions of ecosystems is absolutely critical to our capacity to make informed decisions to maintain the sustainable nature of our environment now and into the future. Because of the variability among living organisms and levels of organization (e.g. genetic, species, ecosystem), biodiversity has always been difficult to measure precisely, especially within a systematic manner and over multiple scales. In answer to this challenge, we have developed an approach that uses deductive habitat models for all the terrestrial vertebrates of the conterminous United States and clusters them into biodiversity metrics that relate to ecosystem service-relevant categories that reflect elements of A) Biodiversity Conservation; B) Food, Fiber, and Materials; and C) Recreation, Culture, and Aesthetics at 30m (Landsat) resolution. Collectively, these provide a consistent scalable process from which to make geographic comparisons, provide thematic assessments, and to monitor status and trends in biodiversity. Currently, we include 1590 terrestrial vertebrate species (621 bird spp., 365 mammal spp., 322 reptile spp., and 282 amphibian spp.) for the conterminous U.S. In the present study, we identify and map reptile and amphibian biodiversity metrics for the Mojave Ecoregion. We focus on species richness metrics including all reptile species richness; all amphibian species richness; taxa groupings, e.g. snakes, lizards, frogs, and toads; and special status species. These metrics were then mapped based on their projected occurrence within the Mojave Desert and compared at finer scales within specific ecosystems to demonstrate the multi-scale utility of the approach. In these examples, geographic patterns differed among metrics and across the study area. Additionally, we have created a dynamic element within the system to allow the exploration and addition of other metrics as they become identified and tested.
