Assessing the gap between conservation need and protection status for select rare ecosystems in Alaska

Rare ecosystems support unique assemblages of flora and fauna within a small geographic area. As such, their conservation represents an effective method of biodiversity protection. The description, mapping, and assessment of rare ecosystems is a necessary and initial conservation action, yet this has not been completed for Alaska. Here, we provide the first comprehensive treatment of rare terrestrial ecosystems for the state. Thirty-five rare systems, representing different levels of ecological organization and geographic scale, are presented. In addition, a gap analysis was conducted to evaluate the systems' current level of land management protection relative to their conservation need. Eleven of the mapped ecosystems are considered adequately protected, two are moderately protected, and 22 are less protected. Conservation ranks are incongruously aligned with land management protection levels such that the rarest systems are often not well protected and the less-imperiled systems are often well protected. On the ecoregion scale, systems with arctic distributions are less protected than are those with boreal and maritime distributions. This rare ecosystem assessment complements species- and landscape-scale conservation studies previously completed for Alaska. Collectively, the recommendations from these assessments provide a science-based strategy for biological conservation in a vulnerable region of the world.