Biodiversity
The guarantee of life on Earth.
Guide to the Page
To protect the precious environmental resources we have in Southern California, we need to plan for species other than ourselves.
Biodiversity and Conservation Dashboard
Southern California is one of the most biodiverse places on earth and the most biodiverse place in the United States. Our special responsibility to places and species can be realized through conservation, healthy waters and habitats, and plenty of interconnection in actions as simple as planting native plants at home to advocating for broader land protections.
Click through the tabs, zoom in and out, and click on statistics in each map. The last tab allows users to turn data layers on and off. We have over 65 data layers related to biodiversity and conservation clipped to Southern California available on our open data portal.
COMMUNITY SCIENCE: Be Part of the Solution!
Community science has revolutionized what we know about species and places.
iNaturalist is a community science social network that allows people to make observations and share them globally to an online community.
Hover over the squares for definitions and information.
StoryMaps: Changing the Future through Conservation
30x30, From The Nature Conservancy: "The dual crises of climate change and mass wildlife extinctions threaten to forever change our world, but there is hope. By protecting 30% of the planet’s oceans, lands, and freshwaters by 2030, people and nature can thrive together into the future."
The Half-Earth Project, From The E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation. "In 2016, E.O. Wilson wrote a book called Half-Earth: Our Planet’s Fight for Life. In that book was a promise: if we protect half the Earth’s land and sea and manage sufficient habitat to safeguard the bulk of biodiversity, living Earth can continue to breathe."
Browse the Half-Earth Project Map!
Land Conservation as a Numbers Game
It's off the charts wild, what is happening to the earth. But if there were ever something NOT to gamble on, it's our collective future.
The two global movements profiled above are placing their bets on conservation. 30x30 and The Half-Earth Project both aim to conserve open and working lands and coastal waters: 30% by 2030, and half the earth, respectively (see the StoryMaps and their websites above).
Conservation means that the land will be permanently kept as open space, cooling things down, filtering water, nurturing pollinators and microbial life, supporting biodiversity, storing and exchanging carbon, and contributing to ecosystem and human health and wellbeing
Use our 30x30 App to see how much land is conserved open space in your area. Some of the results may surprise you!
The data show that we have a lot of land conserved in Southern California but that that many of our urbanized areas lack open space for humans and other species to thrive.
True or False? Southern California Is....
A Biodiversity Hotspot
True!
California is home to more species than any U.S. state and is considered a biodiversity hotspot, meaning it has over 1500 endemic species (species that exist nowhere else) and has lost over 70% of its original habitat also. We have a duty to restore habitats and protect local species in our biodiversity hotspots.
The Most Biodiverse Place in California
TRUE!
AND THE U.S.! Yep, it's true. Southern California has beaches, mountains, deserts, oceans, and wetlands in more abundance and diversity than any other part of California or the nation. Unique places = unique species. Keep SoCal spectacular!
a National model for land conservation
Well...
We have visionary people and amazing organizations dedicated to habitat conservation and wonderful models for Multispecies Habitat Conservation Programs. But SoCal is also ground zero for development that encroaches on habitat. How can we strategize development to protect the coolest creatures and places we have?
home to the largest tree in California!
False!
Southern California is home to the oldest living thing in California and the third oldest living thing on the planet: a specimen of Palmer's Oak that has survived by cloning itself. The Jurupa Oak is not tall or large, but it is old! It was around when saber-toothed tigers were Southern California regulars, and it has the tree rings to prove it.
Home to the only East-West Mountain Ranges in the U.S.!
FALSE!
Southern California is home to the only major east-west mountain range in California. The other is in Utah. The so-called "transverse ranges" have more species unique to our area only (endemic). The lesson? Geography contributes to biodiversity!
the Best Blue whale watching place ever!
True!
In the world! The Pacific Ocean is an essential migration corridor for blue whales--the biggest creatures on earth. It seems fitting that these majestic creatures call the mighty Pacific Ocean home. You can go whale watching off the coast of San Pedro or Long Beach.
An Ecotone Wonderland!
True!
What the heck is an ecotone, you might be asking? An ecotone is when different ecosystems butt up against each other. And those places are where all the coolest stuff happens. We have lots of ecotones in SoCal and many unique species as a result!
home to the most protected desert in the US!
True!
The Mojave Desert is the most protected desert in the US and is the most protected ecosystem in Southern California. It also stores approximately 10% of carbon in Southern California--a magical place above and below ground. The work is never done, but many advocates have fought for the protection of our richly biodiverse desert lands.
Toward a Multi-Species Southern California
Short ecodocumentaries produced through a course collaboration between Intercollegiate Media Studies at the Claremont Colleges and the Robert Redford Conservancy at Pitzer College.
Infographics for multispecies thinking. We human beings are so full of ourselves! But if we shift our priorities and perspectives, we can make room for a multi-species world. So much more interesting, right?
Click to enlarge, zoom, and download these infographics from Jordan Daniels' Pitzer College Philosophy Class on Ethics and Animals.
