Biogeographic Science

Comprehensive and Authoritative Lists of Non-Native Taxa Established in Alaska, Hawaii, and the Conterminous United States.

Administered by the U.S. Geological Survey Gap Analysis Project, the Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US) is the nation’s official inventory of public open space and private protected areas. The lands included in PAD-US are assigned conservation status codes that both denote the level of biodiversity preservation and indicate other natural, recreational and cultural uses.

Administered by the U.S. Geological Survey Gap Analysis Project, the Protected Areas Database of the United States (PAD-US) is the nation’s official inventory of public open space and private protected areas. The lands included in PAD-US are assigned conservation status codes that both denote the level of biodiversity preservation and indicate other natural, recreational and cultural uses.

Species observations for the United States and Territories.

The National Biogeographic Map (NBM) is a project of the Core Science Systems Mission Area. The project’s goal is to provide a platform for analysis of questions about what species are where, how well protected they are, how vulnerable they are to stressors, and what management options will have the greatest benefit for conservation of biodiversity.

This tool allows the user to explore or download the National Gap terrestrial species habitat distribution models, ranges and the species models reports. These models cover the conterminous U.S. and were based on 2001 land cover conditions.

A tool to explore trends about dam removal science and query scientific studies that evaluate environmental response to dam removals.

The GAP Species Viewer provides nation-wide range maps and distribution models for amphibians, birds, mammals, and reptiles occurring in the continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, and U.S. Virgin Islands. These kinds of maps and data are fundamental to assessing patterns of species richness and planning for the management of the nation's biological diversity.

The GAP/LANDFIRE National Terrestrial Ecosystems represents a highly thematically detailed land cover map of the U.S. This dataset is produced by the U.S. Geological Survey in collaboration with the LANDFIRE Program.  The spatial data layer was created using Landsat satellite imagery and a detailed vegetation and land use classification system.

ITIS is the authoritative taxonomic information on plants, animals, fungi, and microbes of North America and the world. We are a partnership of U.S., Canadian, and Mexican agencies (ITIS-North America); other organizations; and taxonomic specialists. ITIS data is used in thousands of databases in industry, academia and government. 

Species of Greatest Conservation Need are lists of species designated in the 56 State Wildlife Action Plans which identify the species most in need of conservation action in that state or U.S. territory. USGS developed a process that allows these lists to be compiled into a national list, making their representation across taxa groups available via the Species Conservation Analysis Tool.

The National Vegetation Classification (NVC) is your guide to inventorying plant communities. The standard allows users to produce uniform statistics about vegetation resources across the nation. CSAS&L actively participates in the development of this important standard through our involvement with the FGDC Vegetation Subcommittee and the ESA Vegetation Panel.