/SalamandersInSouthernAppalachia

Plotting salamander diversity across Southern Appalachia

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Where is the Salamandria Miracle Mile?

People have (probably) pondered for generations where in Southern Appalachia they might find the most salamander species per square mile. Here is a (quick) attempt at an answer.

First, download the IUCN ranges of all salamanders from here.

Next, using the R script in this repository, you can find the salamanders that occur in Southern Appalachia, then create a raster with approximately 1 mi x 1 mi resolution that counts how many species are present at the centroid of that cell. Plot that raster, add some dots for the areas with the highest diversity, and voila!

A map of the best places to visit/live to live among the greatest diversity of salamanders in Salamandria. See Tweet for longer explanation.

Salamander Diversity Map