Central Basin Refugia in Southern Nevada, Yale Framework Project

We used the NatureServe Vista ArcGIS extension to map diversity as recommended in the Yale Framework. This map might be viewed as a specialized depiction of climate envelope models; this is a richness index reflecting the concentration of central basin refugia under future climate. Refugia are roughly defined as areas where an element's distribution remains consistant under a future bioclimate scenario. This CVS index integrates three spatial components (per pixel): the number of refugia elements present, bioclimate model uncertainty (number of climatic models in agreement with the future element distribution), and the landscape condition as represented with a Landscape Condition Model.  This information provided a visualization of useful bioclimate model patterns within the region.