Bird Species Richness

This Service Area-Wide Comparison map (left), derived from Washington and Oregon Gap Analysis data, shows areas of high bird species richness. The predicted distributions for all birds in both states were summarized within each watershed falling within the Columbia Land Trust study area. The results are displayed using a natural breaks algorithm to show naturally occurring patterns in the data. Watersheds colored dark greenish blue have the highest number of predicted species, and watersheds colored brown have the lowest.

In the Ecoregional Comparison of Bird Species Richness map (right), the results for each watershed were scaled within each of the Columbia Land Trust service area’s seven ecoregions. For each ecoregion, the watershed containing the highest number of predicted bird species was set to “100,” and the watershed containing the lowest number was set to “0.” All other values in between were scaled between 0 and 100 to yield a score. The end result is that watersheds in the Coast Range ecoregion, for example, are not compared with watersheds in the Columbia Plateau ecoregion.

Courtesy of CommEn Space.