PARENT SESSION

SAN DIEGO COUNTY MAMMAL ATLAS. Wayne D. Spencer¹, Jay Diffendorfer², Scott Tremor³ and Greg Nichols⁴. ¹ Conservation Biology Institute, 815 Madison Ave., San Diego, CA, USA; ² Department of Biology, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA, USA; ³ San Diego Museum of Natural History, P.O. Box 121390, San Diego, CA, USA; ⁴ Technology Associates International Corporation, 3655 Ruffin Road, Suite 200, San Diego, CA, USA.

ABSTRACT- The San Diego County Mammal Atlas project is a collaborative effort to create a comprehensive mammal geodatabase for San Diego County, California, to address a wide range of research and management questions and to create the definitive reference on mammals in this hotspot of biological diversity. We are currently building a GIS database of over 30,000 mammal occurrence records within the county from numerous sources (museums, publications, gray literature, field notes, etc.) as well as original systematic field surveys. We are reviewing the accuracy and precision of existing mammal location data to ensure their utility for mapping distributions at fairly fine resolution (tens or hundreds of meters). This process has revealed some georeferencing errors and precision problems in existing museum databases, which we are working to correct. Once our database is complete and corrected, we will use it to test a variety of techniques for modeling species habitat associations and geographic distributions for terrestrial mammal species (and many endemic subspecies) at fairly fine resolution. Final range maps will depict known and expected distributions of species in both historic and current time. Focused field surveys will be used to validate predicted distributions and to fill gaps in previous survey efforts using a variety of methods. Other surveys will test particular questions of interest to conservation planners and land managers, such as effects of major wildfires on mammal populations and locations of major species concentrations, migration routes, or other high-priority conservation areas. The maps and other information will be collated into a book and CD on the ecology, natural history, behavior, distribution, and conservation and management needs of mammal species in San Diego County. Other chapters will describe methods for observing, studying, and monitoring mammal populations, and recommendations for improving conservation and land management efforts for mammals in this remarkable biotic region.

KEY WORDS: distribution, mammal, atlas, California