Abstract

Representation of US Ecosystems in Protected Areas
Track: Conservation
Authors: Roger Sayre, Ashwan Reddy, Sarah Sargent, James Nations

We assessed the spatial representation of 711 terrestrial ecosystems
in protected areas of the United States. We identified 20 unrepresented (0% of the distributional area of
the ecosystem included in protected areas) and 206 under-represented (< 5%
of the distributional area protected) ecosystems in this spatial union of 30 m resolution ecosystems and protected area datalayers. These results could inform future park expansion planning efforts which seek to increase ecological representation.