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   FAQs: BC Species and Ecosystems Explorer

 

Where does the data in BC Species and Ecosystems Explorer come from?

The data in BC Species and Ecosystems Explorer comes from the BC Conservation Data Centre (CDC). CDC species data come from a wide variety of sources including museum specimen records, theses, published and unpublished research, surveys conducted by contractors or ministry staff, naturalist's reports and from observations sent in by the public. For ecological communities, sources include the vegetation component of the Biogeoclimatic Ecosystem Classification (Ministry of Forests and Range Research Branch), the Ecological Reserves Program, theses, International Vegetation Classifications, surveys and mapping projects. If you have information to share about a rare species or ecological community in B.C. please visit our Help Us page.

When I do an ecological community search in BC Species and Ecosystems Explorer for a specific Forest District (FD), why do the results list Biogeoclimatic (BGC) units that don't occur in the FD I selected?

All BGC units on which an ecological community occurs are displayed in the results, regardless of the BGC unit or FD specified as a search criterion. This also applies to searches on a specific Ecosection, Ministry of Environment Region, or Regional District.

This means that a FD (or Ecosection, Ministry of Environment Region, or Regional District) search may return ecological communities that also occur on BGC units that aren't in the specified FD (or Ecosection, Ministry of Environment Region, or Regional District). For example, Glyceria borealis Fen is one of the ecological communities in the Haida Gwaii FD. The BGCs listed in the search results for Glyceria borealis Fen are CWHvh2, which occurs in the Haida Gwaii FD, and ESSFdv, MSxv and SBPSxc, which do not.

For more information on interpreting the results of ecological community searches in BC Species and Ecosystems Explorer click the Help tab, then Ecological Community Help, then RESULTS PAGE and refer to the section Understanding the Results of a Search.

Why don't some species show up in distribution searches when I know they occur in a particular jurisdiction? For example, why isn't the Western Grebe on the South Island Forest District Lists? I've seen this species at Saanich Inlet.

First, distribution searches are restricted to Red- and Blue-listed and legally designated species. Second, birds are only listed in a jurisdictions in which they breed. The Western Grebe breeds in the interior, then disperses along the coast in the winter.

Links to other FAQ topics

Endangered Species and Ecosystems
Red, Blue and Yellow Lists
Ecological Communities
Known Locations of Species and Ecosystems