A Global Map Of Species Terrestrial Habitat Types

The loss of species habitat - described as the entirety of the physical conditions, e.g. land cover and climate - is one of the primary causes of biodiversity decline globally. Knowledge about species habitats is critical to design landscape management plans and conservation prioritizations. Here, we provide a global spatial-explicit characterization of 47 terrestrial habitat types directly relevant to biodiversity conservation. These habitat types broadly follow the standard habitat classification system defined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which is widely used for assessments of species extinction risk. This habitat type map was produced by intersecting currently best available data on land-cover, climate and land use from a variety of ancillary datasets. We furthermore validate this map using independently derived estimates of observed habitats from biodiversity occurrence records. Overall, these data broaden our knowledge of habitat types globally and will be highly useful for broad-scale ecological studies and a spatial guide for upcoming IUCN redlist assessments. We hope that this data will spur further development of biodiversity-relevant habitat type maps on a global scale

A global map of terrestrial habitat types

We provide a global, spatially explicit characterization of 47 terrestrial habitat types, as defined in the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) habitat classification scheme, which is widely used in ecological analyses, including for quantifying species’ Area of Habitat. We produced this novel habitat map for the year 2015 by creating a global decision tree that intersects the best currently available global data on land cover, climate and land use. We independently validated the map using occurrence data for 828 species of vertebrates (35152 point plus 8181 polygonal occurrences) and 6026 sampling sites. Across datasets and mapped classes we found on average a balanced accuracy of 0.77 (+¯0.14 SD) at Level 1 and 0.71 (+¯0.15 SD) at Level 2, while noting potential issues of using occurrence records for validation. The maps broaden our understanding of habitats globally, assist in constructing area of habitat refinements and are relevant for broad-scale ecological studies and future IUCN Red List assessments. Periodic updates are planned as better or more recent data becomes available

Fertility limiting behavior and contraceptive choice among men in Nepal

Context: Contraceptive choices among men who want no more children have been little explored in South Asia, particularly in Nepal, where fertility rates have remained high over the last few decades. Methods: Using the 2001 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey couple data set, multinomial logistic regression analyses were conducted for 1,041 married men aged 20 or older who had at least one living child and wanted no more children. Regression models examined relationships between selected characteristics and men's reported contraceptive use, and predicted probabilities were estimated to assess interactions between ecological zone, family composition and method choice. The primary goal was to determine whether the number and sex of living children influenced contraceptive use. Results: Twenty-four percent of men who wanted no more children were not using any contraceptive method at the time of the survey, 30% reported that their wives were sterilized, 12% had had a vasectomy, 7% were using condoms and 27% used other temporary methods. The probability of relying on permanent methods was highest among men who had at least two living sons and lowest among those who had only daughters, while the probability of using no method was highest among those who had only daughters. Conclusion: In Nepal, men who report a desire to have no more children are likely to choose permanent methods only after they have two living sons. <br/