Essential biodiversity variables for mapping and monitoring species populations

Species distributions and abundances are undergoing rapid changes worldwide. This highlights the significance of reliable, integrated information for guiding and assessing actions and policies aimed at managing and sustaining the many functions and benefits of species. Here we synthesize the types of data and approaches that are required to achieve such an integration and conceptualize 'essential biodiversity variables' (EBVs) for a unified global capture of species populations in space and time. The inherent heterogeneity and sparseness of raw biodiversity data are overcome by the use of models and remotely sensed covariates to inform predictions that are contiguous in space and time and global in extent. We…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Awards: 1262600, DEB-1441737
• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration

  Awards: 80NSSC18K0435, 80NSSC17K0282
• CI
  California Institute of Technology
• NS
  Nuclear Safety and Security Commission
• DZ
  Deutsches Zentrum für integrative Biodiversitätsforschung Halle-Jena-Leipzig
• JP
  Jet Propulsion Laboratory