Section within Element Ranking records used for listing and evaluating present and foreseeable-future extrinsic threats to the Element.
Threat Categories that affect the Element within the specified geographic level or jurisdiction (global, national, subnational) are listed in the grid along with scope, severity, and timing for each threat. Threats are recorded using the IUCN-CMP Classification of Threats. The level-1 threats are shown in bold: lower-level scope and severity scores must be rolled up to Level 1, and only level-1 threats are included in the Overall Threat calculation.
Data entry details:
For each known threat:
Click the Add button to see the list of Threat Categories, and select the threat category you want to add to the grid. You can only add one threat category at a time, but when you select a lower-level threat, its parent threats are automatically added. For example, selecting threat 2.1.1 will add threats 2, 2.1, and 2.1.1 to the grid.
Scope, Severity, and Timing values are automatically populated in upper-level threats if there is a single child threat.
If there is more than 1 child threat, the parent Scope, Severity, and Timing values will need to be manually entered in the parent threat row.
If the level 2 threats overlap, identify which of them has the highest impact and assign the scope, severity, and impact values of this level 2 threat to the level 1 category in which it is included;
If the level 2 threats are substantially non-overlapping, then higher scope and severity values may be justified for the level 1 category in which they are included, and best professional judgment should be used to assign scope, severity, impact, and timing values to that level 1 threat.
The Impact of each threat is automatically calculated using the entered Scope, Severity, and Timing values. The calculation applies the same methodology as the Rank Calculator Tool, as described in NatureServe Conservation Status Assessments: Methodology for Assigning Ranks. The Impact is stored in a database field, but is automatically updated any time the Scope, Severity, or Timing values are edited.
Enter any comments specific to the threat category in the Comments field; these should be brief. A discussion of all the individual threats and the impact on the element should be entered in the Overall Threat Impact Comments field.
Two categories, Unknown/undetermined and No known threats, are not true threat categories. They provide users with a way of indicating that they have assessed the threats but either 1) cannot make any determination about the threats or 2) there are no known threats from the area of assessment (global, national, subnational).
If threats are Unknown for the element, choose the "Unknown/undetermined" threat category from the dropdown, but do not complete the scope, severity, or timing fields.
If there are no known threats, choose the "No known threats" threat category from the dropdown, but do not complete the scope, severity, or timing fields. The Assigned Overall Threat Impact score should be set to Low.
“Localized threats may exist, but on a range-wide scale no major threats are known.”
“No discernible threats exist at the present time or for the foreseeable future. Pollution and habitat modification such as drainage are potential problems.”