The rarity-weighted richness map is a raster layer showing the relative importance of each ~10km (300 arc-seconds) grid cell in terms of its aggregate contribution to the global distribution of species of mammals, birds, amphibians, crabs, crayfishes and shrimps. The rarity-weighted richness for each species within a grid cell was calculated as the contribution of the cell toward the global distribution of the species. These scores were summed across all species present within a grid cell to give an overall score.
High values show that a cell holds a large number of species and/or that the average ranges of the species present in the cell are small, so that the cell represents a relatively high proportion of their range.
Loss of species populations in such cells is therefore of disproportionate significance in terms of loss of global biodiversity (at least for the taxonomic groups considered). Rarity-weighted richness is also known as ‘range-size rarity’ or ‘range-rarity’ and has been used as a metric of ‘biodiversity significance’. The rarity-weighted richness map is a raster layer showing the relative importance of each ~10km (300 arc-seconds) grid cell in terms of its aggregate contribution to the global distribution of species of mammals, birds, amphibians, crabs, crayfishes and shrimps. The rarity-weighted richness for each species within a grid cell was calculated as the contribution of the cell toward the global distribution of the species. These scores were summed across all species present within a grid cell to give an overall score.
High values show that a cell holds a large number of species and/or that the average ranges of the species present in the cell are small, so that the cell represents a relatively high proportion of their range.
Loss of species’ populations in such cells is therefore of disproportionate significance in terms of loss of global biodiversity (at least for the taxonomic groups considered). Rarity-weighted richness is also known as ‘range-size rarity’ or ‘range-rarity’ and has been used as a metric of ‘biodiversity significance’.
