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

Metadata Updated: August 30, 2023

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 15 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).

Access & Use Information

License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

Downloads & Resources

Dates

Metadata Date May 22, 2017
Metadata Created Date August 30, 2023
Metadata Updated Date August 30, 2023
Reference Date(s) May 7, 2015 (publication)
Frequency Of Update asNeeded

Metadata Source

Harvested from Environmental Dataset Gateway ISO Geospatial Metadata

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Date May 22, 2017
Metadata Created Date August 30, 2023
Metadata Updated Date August 30, 2023
Reference Date(s) May 7, 2015 (publication)
Responsible Party U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Research and Development-Sustainable and Healthy Communities Research Program, EnviroAtlas (Point of Contact)
Contact Email
Guid {80560C72-C9B8-4CBB-B480-CE8A39167E58}
Access Constraints Use Constraints: None. Please check sources, scale, accuracy, currency and other available information. Please confirm that you are using the most recent copy of both data and metadata. Acknowledgement of the EPA would be appreciated., Access Constraints: None
Bbox East Long -100.7463
Bbox North Lat 44.1821
Bbox South Lat 28.9403
Bbox West Long -122.0670
Coupled Resource
Frequency Of Update asNeeded
Harvest Object Id ddd49e9d-4935-43e1-bf0a-340edc1497a7
Harvest Source Id 9b3cd81e-5515-4bb7-ad3c-5ae44de9b4bd
Harvest Source Title Environmental Dataset Gateway ISO Geospatial Metadata
Licence https://edg.epa.gov/EPA_Data_License.html
Licence Url https://edg.epa.gov/EPA_Data_License.html
Lineage This lineage was generated by the FGDC CSDGM to 19139 transformation
Metadata Language eng; USA
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": [[[-122.067, 28.9403], [-100.7463, 28.9403], [-100.7463, 44.1821], [-122.067, 44.1821], [-122.067, 28.9403]]]}
Progress completed
Spatial Data Service Type
Spatial Reference System
Spatial Harvester True

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