200 Pedodiversity
Finally, endemism richness (Eq. 5, Table 8.2) refers to the total number
of soil bodies per cell or ecoregion, divided by the total number of soil map
units in the database for that group (Kier and Barthlott 2001, Lamoreaux
et al. 2006). This index allows calculations to be comparable between taxa
without a single species group overwhelming the others.
4. Procedure for Identifying Endemic Soils
This study uses the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
database and three approaches for the identifi cation of endemic soils in
Wisconsin. In the fi rst approach, the number of soil orders, suborders,
great groups, subgroups, families, series, phases, and map polygons
were determined for each of Wisconsin’s 72 counties ...