Data Types & Uses

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 five 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. The goal of this data compilation is to help guide conservation efforts and to inform 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; and appropriate use of these data in species listing decisions.
• 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.