[PCA] Invasive Species Assessments on NatureServe Explorer

[Kat Maybury]

It seems that many people are having trouble finding the U.S. invasive species assessments on the NatureServe Explorer site because they are getting detoured to the "Highlights" portion of the page.  The Highlights are just meant to tell users about some of the features of the site, but it's a dead end:  you can't actually get to the information from there.  We realize it has confused people and it will be changed next week.  

Meantime, here's how you can access the U.S. invasive species (I-Rank) assessments:

On the site:  http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/
look on the right hand side and you'll see "search the database for species"  where "species" is a link.  Click on that.  
This takes you to a search page with 3 tabs at the top "Name," "Location" and "Status"
The invasive species ranks (I-Ranks) are on the Status tab, so if you click on that and either use the link at the top that says U.S. Invasive Species Impact Rank (I-RANK or just scroll down the page, you'll see the I-Rank select criteria.  There, you can select the species that have been assessed as being "High," "Medium," "Low," "Insignificant," or of "Unknown" impact.   The "Select all" button will show you everything that has been assessed thus far. 

Once you've selected your criteria, just hit "Search Now" and it will execute your search.

You can combine I-Rank selects with criteria on the other tabs if you want.  For example, you could select "High" as your I-Rank criterion and then go to the "Location" tab and select "Maryland" and that will show you all the plants that have been ranked as High impact and that occur in Maryland. (The state (and province) level selects will work but we have practically no county- or watershed-level distribution information for non-native species.)

Or you could use "Select All" as your I-Rank criterion and then go to the "Name" tab and type in "Trifolium%" to see all the Trifolium species that have been assessed.

You can also omit the I-Rank criteria altogether and just use the "Name" search to type in the name of your (least) favorite plant.  If we've assessed it, you'll see the I-Rank section of the report when you click on the species name in your search results. 

In fact, for any of your searches, the Search Results page will allow you to click on the species name and obtain all the information we have available for that species, arranged in thematic sections like "Conservation Status", "Ecology & Life History" and ---the latest addition ----"U.S. Invasive Species Impact Rank (I-Rank)".  A new feature of the site is that the sections are expandable/collapsible for ease of viewing whatever you're most interested in.)

Hope this helps.  Happy searching and viewing.

   

 


________________________________________
From: Kat Maybury 
Sent: Friday, July 14, 2006 3:57 PM
To: 'Botany at lists.natureserve.org'; 'coordinator at lists.natureserve.org'; 'native-plants at lists.plantconservation.org'; 'apwg at lists.plantconservation.org'
Cc: 'meginnv at yahoo.com'; 'jarandall at ucdavis.edu'; 'tkilleffer at gmail.com'; 'Bonnie.Harper-Lore at fhwa.dot.gov'; 'Luc Brouillet'; 'nberlin at fs.fed.us'; Nancy Benton; 'Ron_Heibert at nps.gov'; 'Larry Morse'; Tina Howe; Karen Monroe; Leslie Honey
Subject: Invasive Species Assessments on NatureServe Explorer

I'm very happy to announce the debut of U.S. invasive species assessments on our website, NatureServe Explorer :  http://www.natureserve.org/explorer/

You'll find assessments for a total 452 non-native plants of the U.S., searchable by name, location, invasive impact rank (I-Rank), or a combination of these criteria.  Additional assessments will be available in the fall.  

The assessments are the result of applying a systematic protocol (Morse et al. 2004) to determine the degree of impact an individual non-native species has on the native plants, animals, and ecosystems of the United States.  Our hope is that these objective and transparent assessments will build consensus and galvanize action.

You can determine which non-native plants in your area have been ranked "High" impact, or which are still "Unknown."  (For those unfamiliar with the NatureServe Explorer site:  choose to "search the database for species" and then use the "Location" and "Status" tabs that you'll see at the top of the page)  You can read the entire assessment for any species and there is a link for providing feedback that will help us improve the information and refine the I-ranks in the future.

We are thrilled to finally have these assessments integrated with our other data in a searchable format.  We are especially grateful to the Federal Highway Administration for supporting this addition to our Explorer site.

Thanks and let us know what you think!


Kat Maybury
Director, Botany Department 
NatureServe
1101 Wilson Blvd., 15th floor
Arlington, VA  22209
703-908-1882
kat_maybury at natureserve.org
www.natureserve.org
www.natureserve.org/explorer/