Experimental biogeographical analysis

The following were very early 'proof of concept' maps: do not take them too seriously. They are retained here for historical interest only. What they tried to show is rapidly being superceded by our current niche modeling efforts. So, no great significance should be attached to the patterns they appear to show, or don't show. They were based on the relatively limited dataset then available, and the methods were crude.

Geographical coverage of distribution records in database
The database currently includes 27216 distribution records from 3290 distinct localities. Each dot on the map below represents one such locality. Obviously, subsequent maps cannot depict anything about the biodiversity in areas for which there is no coverage on this first map.

Areas of higher biodiversity
As a crude measure of overall biodiversity, the next map considers the total number of species recorded from each of the above localities, and maps them in different shades of blue. Darker dots are localities from which more species have been recorded than from lighter dots. At this stage of database development, darker dots reflect places where more work has been done over the years, or that just happen to be well represented in sources consulted to date, rather than localities that necessarily harbour profoundly higher biodiversity than any others. The top spot changes from day to day. Currently it is Gobabeb with 428 species.
Important caveat: distribution data of any kind has been entered for only 27.61 % of Namibian species, at an average of 5.56 records per species.

Hotspots of endemicity
The next map depicts the number of Namibian endemic or near-endemic species recorded from each locality, as a proportion of the total number of species recorded from that locality. Darker dots are localities with a higher proportions of endemics than lighter dots. To prevent single records of endemic species from skewing the picture, only localities with more than 10 endemic species each were considered. The top spot here also changes from day to day as new records are added. Currently the highest rate of endemicity is 93.75 % from Kuiseb Delta, while the highest number of endemic species from any one locality is 56 species from Kahani dune, at a rate of 53.85 %.
Caveat: currently any form of endemicity data has been entered for only 34.81 % of Namibian species; among them, the overall rate of endemicity is 25.26 %.

Hasn't this all been done before?
Yes, for limited subsets of Namibian biodiversity (birds, plants, frogs, mammals etc.), but never before in a manner that takes total biodiversity into account.