Harnessing the world's biodiversity data: promise and peril in ecological niche modeling of species distributions

2012 ◽  
Vol 1260 (1) ◽  
pp. 66-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert P. Anderson
Author(s):  
A. Townsend Peterson ◽  
Jorge Soberón ◽  
Richard G. Pearson ◽  
Robert P. Anderson ◽  
Enrique Martínez-Meyer ◽  
...  

This chapter focuses on the conceptual and applied aspects of environmental data in the context of building and interpreting ecological niche models. It first examines how different suites of environmental factors may affect species distributions across a range of spatial scales before discussing which and how many variables are needed for ecological niche modeling. It then reviews the diverse sources of environmental datasets that are of potential utility in ecological niche modeling and concludes by considering a number of challenges involved in designing and choosing environmental data for ecological niche modeling. These challenges include data preparation, data quality, spatial extent, resolution in space and time, types of environmental data, and ancillary data.


Author(s):  
A. Townsend Peterson ◽  
Jorge Soberón ◽  
Richard G. Pearson ◽  
Robert P. Anderson ◽  
Enrique Martínez-Meyer ◽  
...  

This book has described a comprehensive framework for thinking about the geography and ecology of species distributions, arguing that such a framework is critical to further progress in the field of ecological niches and distributions. To develop this framework, traditional concepts in ecology have been radically reworked. In this conclusion, some of the challenges for future work regarding ecological niche modeling are discussed, such as fully integrating the BAM diagram with central concepts of population biology and statistical theory; clarifying the notion of niche conservatism versus niche evolution as regards scenopoetic versus bionomic environmental dimensions; and improving the link between correlational and mechanistic approaches to estimating and understanding ecological niches. The book argues that careful conceptual thinking must be combined with detailed empirical exploration in order to address each of these challenges.


2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gabriel Parra-Henao ◽  
Laura C. Suárez-Escudero ◽  
Sebastián González-Caro

Ecological niche modeling of Triatominae bugs allow us to establish the local risk of transmission of the parasiteTrypanosoma cruzi,which causes Chagas disease.This information could help to guide health authority recommendations on infection monitoring, prevention, and control. In this study, we estimated the geographic distribution of triatomine species in Colombia and identified the relationship between landscape structure and climatic factors influencing their occurrence. A total of 2451 records of 4 triatomine species (Panstrongylus geniculatus,Rhodnius pallescens,R. prolixus, andTriatoma maculata) were analyzed.The variables that provided more information to explain the ecologic niche of these vectors were related to precipitation, altitude, and temperature. We found that the species with the broadest potential geographic distribution wereP. geniculatus,R. pallescens, andR. prolixus. In general, the models predicted the highest occurrence probability of these vectors in the eastern slope of the Eastern Cordillera, the southern region of the Magdalena valley, and the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta.


2010 ◽  
Vol 118 (5) ◽  
pp. 653-658 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunny Mak ◽  
Brian Klinkenberg ◽  
Karen Bartlett ◽  
Murray Fyfe

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