Physiographic diversity, or geodiversity, is a measure of abiotic diversity. It refers to the physical features that provide the environmental setting or "stage" for biological activity. Areas with greater diversity in physical features usually correlate with higher levels of biodiversity. The greater number of ecological niches present in a physiographically diverse landscape often support the presence of rare species and high levels of endemism. As a result, geodiversity may be used in some contexts as a proxy for biodiversity and/or endemism when other data are unavailable and/or to augment existing information on species and their habitats. Geodiversity is also recognized as a crucial element of climate refugia. To develop this dataset, Theobald et al. generated novel spatial databases for 15 landform and 269 physiographic types across the conterminous United States of America. They examined their potential use by natural resource managers by placing them within a contemporary climate change adaptation framework, and found the physiographic databases could play key roles in four of seven general adaptation strategies. They also calculated correlations with common empirical measures of biodiversity to examine the degree to which the physiographic setting explains various aspects of current biodiversity patterns. Additionally, they evaluated the relationship between landform diversity and measures of climate change to explore how changes may unfold across a geophysical template. ( Theobald et al 2015 - https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0143619 ).

Spatial Extent: CONUS

Units: Shannon's Equitability