Abstract Detail

Systematics Section / ASPT

Shultz, Leila M. [1], Ramsey, R. Douglas [1], Terletzky, Pat [1].

Determining patterns of biodiversity from the Atlas of Vascular Plants of Utah.

The digital atlas of Utah plants is a spatially explicit database providing information about the distribution of vascular plants in Utah. Core data are based on the Atlas of Vascular Plants of Utah (Albee et al. 1988), a compilation of 73,219 vouchered locations for more than 2,400 species of native and introduced plants in the state of Utah. Maps were produced after critical review of more than 300,000 specimens. Source maps were then hand digitized into an ARC/Info database to reproduce the Atlas in digital form. Since the publication of the Atlas, we have integrated records for an additional 385 species of rare plants and incorporated site-specific records from selected biotic inventories. Using a special tool created in ArcView, we defined areas and extracted species lists for comparisons. Comparisons of species richness patterns between and within ecoregions (Omernik 1987) are based on Jaccard’s coefficient of similarity. As expected, measures of species richness within an ecoregion are higher than between ecoregions. Between the northern and southern portion of the Wasatch mountains, there is a 72% similarity in species composition. Between the Mohave desert and comparable elevations in the Colorado Plateau, species similarity drops to 34%. Data presented here show patterns of species richness related to elevation as well as ecoregion boundaries.

1 - Utah State University, Department of Forest, Range, and Wildlife Sciences, Logan, Utah, 84322-5230

Keywords:
biogeography
Diversity
Natural history collections
Utah vascular plants.

Presentation Type: Poster
Session: 32-130
Location: Special Event Center (Cliff Lodge)
Date: Tuesday, August 3rd, 2004
Time: 12:30 PM
Abstract ID:113