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The relative contribution of terrain, land cover, and vegetation structure indices to species distribution models

Publication ,  Journal Article
Wilson, JW; Sexton, JO; Todd Jobe, R; Haddad, NM
Published in: Biological conservation
August 2013

Habitat assessments for biodiversity conservation are often complicated by the lack of detailed knowledge of a study species’ distribution. As an alternative to resource-intensive field-based methods to obtain such information, remotely sensed products can be utilized in species distribution models to infer a species’ distribution and ecological needs. Here we demonstrate how to arbitrate among a variety of remotely sensed predictor variables to estimate the distribution and ecological needs of an endangered butterfly species occurring mainly in inaccessible areas. We classified 19 continuous environmental predictor variables into three conceptually independent predictor classes, terrain, land cover, and vertical vegetation structure, and compared the accuracy of competing Maxent habitat models consisting of different combinations of each class. Each class contributed, though disproportionately, to our most reliable model that considered all 19 variables. We confirm that variables obtained from remote sensors can effectively estimate the distribution and ecological needs of a relatively unknown imperiled species occurring in inaccessible locations. Importantly, increasing the variety of predictor classes through multi-sensor fusion resulted in greater model accuracy than increasing the absolute number of predictor variables.

Duke Scholars

Published In

Biological conservation

DOI

ISSN

0006-3207

Publication Date

August 2013

Volume

164

Start / End Page

170 / 176

Related Subject Headings

  • Ecology
  • 4104 Environmental management
  • 3109 Zoology
  • 3103 Ecology
  • 07 Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences
  • 06 Biological Sciences
  • 05 Environmental Sciences
 

Citation

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Wilson, J. W., Sexton, J. O., Todd Jobe, R., & Haddad, N. M. (2013). The relative contribution of terrain, land cover, and vegetation structure indices to species distribution models. Biological Conservation, 164, 170–176. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2013.04.021
Wilson, John W., Joseph O. Sexton, R. Todd Jobe, and Nick M. Haddad. “The relative contribution of terrain, land cover, and vegetation structure indices to species distribution models.” Biological Conservation 164 (August 2013): 170–76. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2013.04.021.
Wilson JW, Sexton JO, Todd Jobe R, Haddad NM. The relative contribution of terrain, land cover, and vegetation structure indices to species distribution models. Biological conservation. 2013 Aug;164:170–6.
Wilson, John W., et al. “The relative contribution of terrain, land cover, and vegetation structure indices to species distribution models.” Biological Conservation, vol. 164, Aug. 2013, pp. 170–76. Epmc, doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2013.04.021.
Wilson JW, Sexton JO, Todd Jobe R, Haddad NM. The relative contribution of terrain, land cover, and vegetation structure indices to species distribution models. Biological conservation. 2013 Aug;164:170–176.
Journal cover image

Published In

Biological conservation

DOI

ISSN

0006-3207

Publication Date

August 2013

Volume

164

Start / End Page

170 / 176

Related Subject Headings

  • Ecology
  • 4104 Environmental management
  • 3109 Zoology
  • 3103 Ecology
  • 07 Agricultural and Veterinary Sciences
  • 06 Biological Sciences
  • 05 Environmental Sciences