In this contribution the software ATLANTIS Tierra 2.0 is described as a promising tool to be used in the conservation management of the arthropod biodiversity of native and man-made habitats of the Azores. ATLANTIS Tierra 2.0 allows the mapping of the distribution of all species in a 500 x 500 m grid in a GIS interface. This allows an easy detection of species rich sites (hotspots) and facilitates the interpretation of spatial patterns of species distribution. For instance, predictive models of species distribution could be constructed using the distribution of habitats and environmental variables.
Using this new tool we will be better equipped to answer the following questions: a) Where are the current “hotspots” of biodiversity in the Azores?; b) How many new sites need to be selected as specially protected areas in order to conserve the rarest endemic taxa?; c) Is there congruence between the patterns of richness and distribution of invertebrates and other taxa?; d) Are environmental variables good surrogates of species distributions?