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Data Types
NatureServe Explorer provides an array of information
about the conservation status, taxonomy, distribution,
life history, and habitat requirements of the species
and ecological communities it covers. This information
has been developed over the past thirty years by NatureServe,
its natural heritage member programs, and a large
number of collaborators in government agencies, universities,
natural history museums and botanical gardens, and
other conservation organizations. This information
has been developed primarily to help in guiding conservation
and informing environmental planning and management.
NatureServe
and its natural heritage program members have developed
standardized methods for gathering, managing, and
analyzing biological and ecological data, referred
collectively as Natural
Heritage Methodology. These methods focus on documenting
location and condition of species and ecosystems,
with particular focus on those that are of greatest
conservation concern, and are described in general
terms in the Data Development Overview section, below.
Several information types offered on NatureServe Explorer
deserve particular discussion, including protocols
for assessing conservation status and procedures for
assessing population viability.
NatureServe
Conservation Status - NatureServe protocols for assessing extinction risk and assigning conservation status ranks; definitions of global, national, and subnational status ranks.
Legal
Status - Definitions for legal
status of species under the U.S. Endangered Species
Act and the Canadian Species at Risk Act.
Population
Viability Assessment - NatureServe protocols for
assessing population viability for particular
species and assigning population viability ranks.
NatureServe Invasive Species Impact Rank (I-Rank) - NatureServe protocol for
evaluating non-native plant taxa for their impact on biodiveristy.
Images -
Learn what photographic images are available,
how they may be used, and how to contribute images.
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