About the Process
For a full list of plant species, click here.
The current and future distributions of eight plant species were mapped using climate change and land use projections for the next 65 years. These target species were chosen from a list of endangered species for their vulnerability to human-induced change. The projections came from the most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (2013), detailing different variations of temperature rise and precipitation change resulting from increased Greenhouse gas emissions. Using the Maxent modeling system, a program which accounts for the maximum entropy of each state while taking into account the different scenarios of climate change (warmer-wetter, warmer-drier), current species-climate models were fit using all species locations and default settings (Riordan et al. 2014). These maps were overlaid onto current and future land use maps obtained from the United States Geological Survey (USGS), which display a number of characteristics, such as areas under federal protection, areas of current use, and areas of projected land use. Areas of habitat gain, loss, and stability were also assessed in ArcMap 10 by looking at where the current and future habitats would overlap (Riordan et al. 2014).
These maps were first put out as raster layers, and then converted into shapefiles which could be opened in ArcMap and QGIS. These shapefiles were customized in ArcMap and QGIS, then converted into Keyhole Markup Language (.kml) files so they could be read in Google Earth. The files were opened in Google Earth and made aesthetically pleasing by changing their color and transparency. The maps were unable to be embedded as straight KML files into a website, so they were added to Google Maps and embedded into this site for accessibility.
These maps were first put out as raster layers, and then converted into shapefiles which could be opened in ArcMap and QGIS. These shapefiles were customized in ArcMap and QGIS, then converted into Keyhole Markup Language (.kml) files so they could be read in Google Earth. The files were opened in Google Earth and made aesthetically pleasing by changing their color and transparency. The maps were unable to be embedded as straight KML files into a website, so they were added to Google Maps and embedded into this site for accessibility.
Collins, M., R. Knutti, J. Arblaster, J. L. Dufresne, T. Fichefet, P. Friedlingstein, X. Gao, W.J. Gutowski, T. Johns, G. Krinner, M. Shongwe, C. Tebaldi, A.J. Weaver and M. Wehner, 2013: Long-term Climate Change: Projections, Commitments and Irreversibility. In: Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Stocker, T.F., D. Qin, G.-K. Plattner, M. Tignor, S.K. Allen, J. Boschung, A. Nauels, Y. Xia, V. Bex and P.M. Midgley (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom and New York, NY, USA, pp. 1029–1136, doi:10.1017/CBO9781107415324.024.
Riordan, E. C., T.W. Gillespie, L. Pitcher, S.S. Pincetl, G.D. Jenerette, D.E. Pataki. Threats of future climate change and land use to vulnerable tree species native to Southern California. Environmental Conservation. 1-12 (2014).
Riordan, E. C., T.W. Gillespie, L. Pitcher, S.S. Pincetl, G.D. Jenerette, D.E. Pataki. Threats of future climate change and land use to vulnerable tree species native to Southern California. Environmental Conservation. 1-12 (2014).