ACIMS track and watch lists

Overview

The Alberta Conservation Information Management System (ACIMS) endeavours to list all species Elements reported for the province and contributes to the General Status of Wild Species in Canada. Through this process, taxonomic experts compile lists of species reported for Alberta and calculate their ranks (S-Ranks). These lists are used to update the ACIMS database.

Elements that are rare, or of conservation concern, are typically added to the track or watch lists. For example, a species may be added to the track list if it has few known occurrences in Alberta, or if it is listed on the federal Species at Risk Act or the Alberta Wildlife Act. Under-surveyed Elements may also be included on the track list or watch list so that more data is collected on them to help determine their status:

• For example, species with few records reported in Alberta that have not been subject to targeted surveys.

ACIMS actively collects information for all Elements that appear on the track and watch lists, including location information. As data is collected, if an Element proves to be more common than originally thought, it may be re-ranked and removed from the list.

• To report an observation of a tracked or a watched Element, submit the data to ACIMS.
• Element lists are available on the Open Government Portal. Element lists change regularly and users should check ACIMS data often for updates.

Tracked or watched Elements

Tracked Elements

ACIMS actively collects data tracked Elements, these compose the track list. The tracking status of Elements is provided in ACIMS Element Lists (see Access ACIMS Data page). Elements are added to the track list when information suggests they are rare or of conservation concern due to threats to populations or documented declines.

Observation data collected for tracked Elements is then processed to create Element Occurrences (EO) which are available through the ACIMS data products (only Elements that are currently tracked appear in ACIMS data products).

Partially tracked Elements

For partially tracked Elements, only occurrences that meet specific criteria are tracked. Potential reasons for partial tracking include:

• Only occurrences with a specific EO rank are tracked.
• Only occurrences in selected geographic areas (watersheds, ecoregions, etc.) are tracked.
• Taxonomic changes have affected existing EOs. For example, when a tracked species has been separated into multiple subspecies, the existing EOs are to be reviewed and assigned to the correct Element where possible.

Watched Elements

Watched Elements are those for which ACIMS is collecting data, but which are not being processed to create EOs. There are several reasons why Elements may be on the watch list rather than the tracking list, including lower conservation concern, and uncertainty about conservation status.

Tracking and taxonomy

Elements are tracked to the lowest taxonomic level (for example, variety or subspecies). This means that before submitting data to ACIMS, Elements should be identified to the lowest recognized taxonomic level by the data submitter.