This set of files includes downscaled future projections of vapor pressure (units=hPa) at a 1km spatial scale. This data has been prepared as model input for the Integrated Ecosystem Model (IEM). There can be errors or serious limitations to the application of this data to other analyses. The data constitute the result of a downscaling procedure using 2 General Circulation Models (GCM) from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project 5 (CMIP5) for RCP 8.5 scenario (2006-2100) monthly time series and Climatic Research Unit (CRU) TS2.0 (1961-1990,10 min spatial resolution) global climatology data. Please note that this data is used to fill in a gap in available data for the Integrated Ecosystem Model (IEM) and does not constitute a complete or precise measurement of this variable in all locations. RCPs: 8.5 Centers, Model Names, Versions, and Acronyms: National Center for Atmospheric Research,Community Earth System Model 4,NCAR-CCSM4 Meteorological Research Institute,Coupled General Circulation Model v3.0,MRI-CGCM3 Methods of creating downscaled relative humidity data: 1. The GCM input data are distributed as relative humidity along with the CRU CL 2.0, therefore no conversion procedure was necessary before beginning the downscaling procedure. 2. Proportional Anomalies generated using the 20c3m Historical relative humidity data 1961-1990 climatology and the projected relative humidity data (2006-2100). 3. These proportional anomalies are interpolated using a spline interpolation to a 10min resolution grid for downscaling with the CRU CL 2.0 Relative Humidity Data. 4. The GCM proportional anomalies are multiplied by month to the baseline CRU CL 2.0 10min relative humidity climatology for the period 1961-1990. Creating a downscaled relative humidity projected time series 2006-2100. 5. Due to the conversion procedure and the low quality of the input data to begin with, there were values that fell well outside of the range of acceptable relative humidity (meaning that there were values >100 percent), these values were re-set to a relative humidity of 95 at the suggestion of the researchers involved in the project. It is well known that the CRU data is spotty for Alaska and the Circumpolar North, due to a lack of weather stations and poor temporal coverage for those stations that exist. 6. The desired output resolution for the AIEM modeling project is 1km, so the newly created downscaled time series is resampled to this resolution using a standard bilinear interpolation resampling procedure. 7. The final step was to convert the downscaled relative humidity data to vapor pressure using the calculation below, which uses a downscaled temperature data set created utilizing the same downscaling procedure. EQUATION: saturated vapor pressure = 6.112 x exp(17.62 x temperature/(243.12+temperature)) vapor pressure = (relative humidity x saturated vapor pressure)/100

This dataset represents the results of a project that compiled available range information for three taxonomic groups representing 211 species (159 birds, 45 mammals, and 5 amphibians) identified as Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) by the 2015 Alaska Wildlife Action Plan (SWAP) Appendix A (https://www.adfg.alaska.gov/index.cfm?adfg=wildlifediversity.swap) in addition to 2 amphibian species native to Alaska. The goal of this effort was to create an initial set of statewide heatmaps of SGCN richness. Files include: (1) a set of 21 species richness heat maps depicting the sum of overlapping range maps from multiple SGCNs; (2) shapefiles of species range maps for Alaska’s terrestrial SGCN, with all species ranked (high, moderately high, moderate, low) in terms of relative conservation and management priority based on the Alaska Species Ranking System (ASRS; https://accs.uaa.alaska.edu/wildlife/alaska-species-ranking-system); (3) shapefiles of species in decline for birds and marine mammals (as listed in SWAP Appendix A); and (4) a file that cross-walks each SGCN by species code, common name, and scientific name. Complete information describing how environmental variables correlated with species richness is provided in the final report (http://data.snap.uaf.edu/data/Base/Other/Species/State_Wildlife_Grant_Final_Report_20Sept24.pdf). Species richness maps were derived from species-specific, 6th-level hydrologic unit (HUC12) occupancy maps developed by the Alaska Gap Analysis Project (https://accscatalog.uaa.alaska.edu/dataset/alaska-gap-analysis-project). Hotspot maps highlight all HUCs containing more than 60% of considered amphibian species or 80% of the maximum number of co-occurring bird or mammal species. Species richness values were derived by summing the number of species with overlapping ranges. A gradient boosting machine algorithm quantified relationships between SGCN hotspots and a set of 24 climatic, topographic, and habitat predictors. It is important to note that species ranges are modeled and extrapolated from limited data. They may be affected by changes in our understanding of species' ranges, changes in taxonomy, and changes in what we consider to be the best tools and data for creating distribution models using presence-only data, and may overestimate actual ranges. These datasets and any associated maps and other products are intended to provide a landscape-level overview only. It is highly recommended that any use of these datasets be undertaken in conjunction with expert advice from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game (see contact information below).