Patterns of Freshwater Species Richness, Endemism, and Vulnerability in California.

ABSTRACT: The ranges and abundances of species that depend on freshwater habitats are declining worldwide. Efforts to counteract those trends are often hampered by a lack of information about species distribution and conservation status and are often strongly biased toward a few well-studied groups. We identified the 3,906 vascular plants, macroinvertebrates, and vertebrates native to California, USA, that depend on fresh water for at least one stage of their life history. We evaluated the conservation status for these taxa using existing government and non-governmental organization assessments (e.g., endangered species act, NatureServe), created a spatial database of locality observations or distribution information from ~400 data sources, and mapped patterns of richness, endemism, and vulnerabilit

SUBMITTER: Howard JK 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4493109 | biostudies-literature | 2015

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature