Mapping Species Distributions: Spatial Inference and Prediction

by Janet Franklin

• ISBN13: 9780521700023
• ISBN10: 0521700027
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-02-08
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Maps of species' distributions or habitat suitability are required for many aspects of environmental research, resource management and conservation planning. These include biodiversity assessment, reserve design, habitat management and restoration, species and habitat conservation plans and predicting the effects of environmental change on species and ecosystems. The proliferation of methods and uncertainty regarding their effectiveness can be daunting to researchers, resource managers and conservation planners alike. Franklin summarises the methods used in species distribution modeling (also called niche modeling) and presents a framework for spatial prediction of species distributions based on the attributes (space, time, scale) of the data and questions being asked. The framework links theoretical ecological models of species distributions to spatial data on species and environment, and statistical models used for spatial prediction. Providing practical guidelines to students, researchers and practitioners in a broad range of environmental sciences including ecology, geography, conservation biology, and natural resources management.

Table of Contents

History and Ecological Basis of Species' Distribution Modeling

Species distribution modeling

Why do we need species' distribution models?

Ecological understanding of species' distributions

The Data Needed for Modeling Species' Distributions

Data for species' distribution models: the biological data

Data for species' distribution models: the environmental data

An Overview of the Modeling Methods

Statistical models - modern regression

Machine learning methods

Classification, similarity and other methods for presence-only data

Model Evaluation and Implementation

Model evaluation

Implementation of species' distribution models

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