In our 2022-2026 Strategic Plan, NatureServe commits to playing an even greater role in protecting biodiversity by providing the best available science, data, and technology to support biodiversity conservation. Learn more about the values that are core to NatureServe and how we are investing in our future.
Here we introduce the International Vegetation Classification (IVC), based on the EcoVeg approach, as a useful, multi-scaled and comprehensive terrestrial classification that can inform biome concepts.
This standard places NatureServe and the Network in a better position to place the most current, complete, and consistent biodiversity data into the hands of researchers and decision-makers.
With tremendous biodiversity but increasing threats, Southeast Asia faces challenges in meeting its commitments to the Convention on Biological Diversity’s 2020 Aichi Targets. The use of indicators to monitor, evaluate and guide conservation progress is increasingly urgent. We found indicator use variable among nations but increasing.
Invasive annual grasses are a severe risk to native vegetation of the intermountain West. We developed a regional spatial model encompassing eight ecoregions to indicate the relative abundance of invasive annual grass at five levels of canopy cover.
NatureServe and its Network partners from Natural Heritage Programs, in collaboration with a variety of agency partners, have developed a rapid assessment of ecosystem condition, structured around the concept of ecological integrity, called the Ecological Integrity Assessment (EIA).
We found that nationally generated biodiversity indicators were used 11 times more frequently than global indicators, and that only one-fifth of indicators matched those recommended by the Convention on Biological Diversity.
| Climate Change Vulnerability of Terrestrial Areas of the National Capital Region
To understand how climate change will impact the National Capital Region, the National Park Service partnered with experts at NatureServe to conduct climate change vulnerability assessments.
| Habitat Climate Change Vulnerability Index Applied to Major Vegetation Types of the Western Interior United States
We applied a framework to assess climate change vulnerability of 52 major vegetation types in the Western United States to provide a spatially explicit input to adaptive management decisions. The framework addressed climate exposure and ecosystem resilience; the latter derived from analyses of ecosystem sensitivity and adaptive capacity.
