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Searching for ecological systems by system grouping

Refining results

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Searching for ecological systems by System Grouping (Land Cover Class & Biogeographic Division)

This search has been removed for Ecological Communities (Associations) because the Vegetation Hierarchy has been updated (more information here). To search by Vegetation Hierarchy, go to usnvc.org. There are links from that website back to the association reports in NatureServe Explorer.

Use this search function to search for an ecological system if you do not know its full name, or if you want to view only systems in certain Land Cover Classes and Biogeographic Divisions.

Ecological systems are nested under 2 levels of groups. These groups are not a formal classification hierarchy for ecological systems, rather they are a useful way of organizing them. The highest level ("Land Cover Classes") contains:

  • Forest and Woodland
  • Shrubland
  • Steppe/Savanna
  • Herbaceous
  • Woody Wetland
  • Herbaceous Wetland
  • Mixed Upland and Wetland
  • Barren

 

Tips for searching by group

  • Red indicates the active ""grouping"" (category) where your search will begin

  • When you use this search, you can only search for records in one active grouping and its subgroupings. For example, you cannot search for systems in ""Forest and Woodland"" and ""Shrubland"" at the same time.

  • in front of a name means that subgroups exist below.
  • in front of a name means that you have reached the last subgroup. Click to collapse, or close the active subgroup.

Browsing system groupings

  1. From the NatureServe Explorer home page, click Search for Ecological Communities & Systems.
  2. In the Name tab,
    • Type a wildcard ( * ) under Search by Name if you want to search only by grouping.
    • Type a name, if you want to search for a name within the grouping and subgroupings.
  3. Scroll to And/Or Search by System Grouping.
  4. Click in front of Ecological Systems to see the Land Cover Classes.
  5. You can expand Land Cover Class to see Biogeographic Divisions. To choose multiple Land Cover Classes or Divisions, use the checkboxes
  6. Click Search now to retrieve all the records that match the criteria.
  7. View the results.

Searching by System Grouping name

  1. From the NatureServe Explorer home page, click Search for Ecological Communities & Systems.
  2. In the Name tab,
    • Type a wildcard ( * ) under Search by Name if you want to use only the groups.
    • Type a name, if you want to search on a name within a group.
  3. Scroll to And/Or Search by Group.
  4. Type the name of the group you want.
  5. Click Find the Group Below to go to the group where you want to begin.
  6. If you want to search lower-level groups, see instructions above for browsing.
  7. Click Search Now to retrieve all the records that match the criteria.
  8. View the results.

Refine Results (Searching for ecological communities & systems by wetland and LANDFIRE map legends)

Several additional search options are available under Refine Results at the bottom of the Name tab. These refinements to the criteria allow you to limit your results to only wetland or riparian ecological communities or systems, or to search only for ecological systems that are part of the Inter-agency LANDFIRE map legends.

Limit Ecological Communities Results
  1. To limit your association results to only wetland or riparian ecological communities, click on Only Wetlands
Limit Ecological Systems Results By Wetlands
  1. To limit your ecological systems results to only wetland or riparian ecological systems, click on Only Wetlands
  2. Or, click on a wetland subcategory to limit your results to only isolated (strictly or partially) wetland ecological systems, as defined in Biodiversity Values of Geographically Isolated Wetlands.
Limit Ecological Systems Results By Landfire Legend

The Inter-agency Landfire project is mapping Ecological Systems across the U.S., but some systems are not part of this project.

  1. To limit your results to only systems that are in the Landfire map legend, click on Only Landfire Legend
  2. To limit your results to only systems that are in the Landfire map legend for the eastern U.S., click on Only East Landfire Legend
  3. To limit your results to only systems that are in the Landfire map legend for the western U.S., click on Only West Landfire Legend

Refine Ecological Systems Results

To include the aggregated Ecological Systems that were developed for the Landfire project, you must select the Include Ecological System Aggregates (Used By Landfire) choice. These are nonstandard ecological systems so by default (without checking this box) they are not included in search results.

Setting user preferences
Understanding the results
Viewing and changing search criteria
Searching for ecological communities & systems
Example of an ecological community search
Combining species and ecological community searches
Using NatureServe Explorer

 

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