Robert P. Anderson

City College of New York

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A. Townsend Peterson

University of Kansas

Enrique Martínez‐Meyer

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Jorge Soberón

University of Kansas

Miguel B. Araújo

Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales

Jamie M. Kass

Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University

Miguel Nakamura

Mathematics Research Center

Richard G. Pearson

James Cook University

Matthew E. Aiello‐Lammens

Pace University

Cory Merow

University of Connecticut

Gonzalo E. Pinilla‐Buitrago

City University of New York

Cooperative Institutions

Wacker (United States)

American Museum of Natural History

University of Kansas

Harvard University

City College of New York

City University of New York

John Wiley & Sons (United States)

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Smithsonian Institution

National Museum of Natural History

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

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences (2012)

Robert P. Anderson

Recent advances allow harnessing enormous stores of biological and environmental data to model species niches and geographic distributions. Natural history museums hold specimens that represent the only information available for most species. Ecological niche models (sometimes termed species distribution models ) combine such information with digital environmental data (especially climatic) to offer key insights for conservation biology, management of invasive species, zoonotic human diseases, and other pressing environmental problems. Five major pitfalls seriously hinder such research, especially for cross‐space or cross‐time uses: (1) incorrect taxonomic identifications; (2) lacking or inadequate databasing and georeferences; (3) effects of sampling bias across geography; (4) violation of assumptions related to selection of the study region; and (5) problems regarding model evaluation to identify optimal model complexity. Large‐scale initiatives regarding data availability and quality, technological development, and capacity building should allow high‐quality modeling on a scale commensurate with the enormous potential of and need for these techniques.

Environmental niche modelling

Conservation Biology

Environmental data

Species distribution

10.1111/j.1749-6632.2011.06440.x

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Citations (169)

A new species of spiny pocket mouse (Heteromyidae, Heteromys) endemic to western Ecuador. American Museum novitates ; no. 3382

Robert P. Anderson Pablo Jarrín‐V

Endemism

Source

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Citations (2)

The Availability of Non-transplantable and Surgical Human Tissue to Support Medical and Pharmacotoxicological Research

Toxicology in Vitro (1999)

Robert P. Anderson

Tissue bank

10.1016/s0887-2333(99)00051-x

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Citations (4)

Spatial filtering to reduce sampling bias can improve the performance of ecological niche models

Ecological Modelling (2014)

Robert A. Boria Link E. Olson Steven M. Goodman Robert P. Anderson

Overfitting

10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2013.12.012

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Citations (1,154)

Species Distribution Modeling for Conservation Educators and Practitioners

Matthew E. Aiello‐Lammens Robert P. Anderson Mary E. Blair Bethany A. Johnson Jamie M. Kass

Models that predict distributions of species by combining known occurrence records with digital layers of environmental variables have much potential for application in conservation. Through using this module, teachers will enable students to develop species distribution models, to apply the models across a series of analyses, and to interpret predictions accurately. In addition to its original components, this module features an updated and condensed synthesis document ("A Brief Introduction to Species Distribution Modeling for Conservation Educators and Practitioners," which provides theoretical and practical guidance for the expanding field of species distribution modeling. The synthesis is supplemented by a new exercise where learners create and optimize species distribution models using Wallace, an R-based GUI (Graphical User Interface) application for ecological modeling that currently focuses on building, evaluating, and visualizing models of species niches and distributions. Additionally, there are four new PowerPoint presentations on species distribution models (the history and theory, data and algorithms, and evaluating SDMs), as well as a presentation on how to use Wallace. The original Synthesis, "Species' Distribution Modeling for Conservation Educators and Practitioners," introduces learners to the modeling approach, outlines key concepts and terminology, and describes questions that may be addressed using the approach. A theoretical framework that is fundamental to ensuring that students understand the uses and limitations of the models is then described. Additionally, it details the main steps in building and testing a distribution model, and describes three case studies that illustrate applications of the models. This module is targeted at a level suitable for teaching graduate students and conservation professionals.

Presentation (obstetrics)

Environmental niche modelling

Species distribution

Interface (matter)

10.5531/cbc.ncep.0184

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Citations (491)

Linking ecological niche models and common garden experiments to predict phenotypic differentiation in stressful environments: Assessing the adaptive value of marginal populations in an alpine plant

Global Change Biology (2022)

Javier Morente‐López Jamie M. Kass Carlos Lara‐Romero Josep M. Serra‐Diaz José C. Soto-Correa

Environmental variation within a species' range can create contrasting selective pressures, leading to divergent selection and novel adaptations. The conservation value of populations inhabiting environmentally marginal areas remains in debate and is closely related to the adaptive potential in changing environments. Strong selection caused by stressful conditions may generate novel adaptations, conferring these populations distinct evolutionary potential and high conservation value under climate change. On the other hand, environmentally marginal populations may be genetically depauperate, with little potential for new adaptations to emerge. Here, we explored the use of ecological niche models (ENMs) linked with common garden experiments to predict and test for genetically determined phenotypic differentiation related to contrasting environmental conditions. To do so, we built an ENM for the alpine plant Silene ciliata in central Spain and conducted common garden experiments, assessing flowering phenology changes and differences in leaf cell resistance to extreme temperatures. The suitability patterns and response curves of the ENM led to the predictions that: (1) the environmentally marginal populations experiencing less snowpack and higher minimum temperatures would have delayed flowering to avoid risks of late-spring frosts and (2) those with higher minimum temperatures and greater potential evapotranspiration would show enhanced cell resistance to high temperatures to deal with physiological stress related to desiccation and heat. The common garden experiments revealed the expected genetically based phenotypic differentiation in flowering phenology. In contrast, they did not show the expected differentiation for cell resistance, but these latter experiments had high variance and hence lower statistical power. The results highlight ENMs as useful tools to identify contrasting putative selective pressures across species ranges. Linking ENMs with common garden experiments provides a theoretically justified and practical way to study adaptive processes, including insights regarding the conservation value of populations inhabiting environmentally marginal areas under ongoing climate change.

10.1111/gcb.16181

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Citations (18)

Conclusions

Princeton University Press eBooks (2011)

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.

Conceptual framework

Conservatism

10.23943/princeton/9780691136868.003.0016

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Can biotic interactions cause allopatry? Niche models, competition, and distributions of South American mouse opossums

Ecography (2014)

Eliécer E. Gutiérrez Robert A. Boria Robert P. Anderson

Based on our own empirical data and a literature review, we explore the possibility that biotic interactions, specifically competition, might be responsible for creating, and/or maintaining, geographic isolation. Ecological niche modeling was first used to test whether the distributions of 2 species of Neotropical marsupials ( Marmosa robinsoni and M. xerophila ) fit the predicted geographic pattern of competitive exclusion: one species predominates in areas environmentally suitable for both species along real contact zones. Secondly, we examined the connectivity among populations of each species, interpreted in the light of the niche models. The results show predominance of M. xerophila along its contact zone with M. robinsoni in the Península de Paraguaná in northwestern Venezuela. There, M. robinsoni has an extremely restricted distribution despite climatic conditions suitable for both species across the peninsula and its isthmus. The latter two results suggest that M. xerophila may be responsible for the geographic isolation of the peninsular populations of M. robinsoni with respect to other populations of the latter species in northwestern Venezuela. These results may represent an example of allopatry caused, or at least maintained, by competition. Our results and a review of numerous studies in which biotic interactions restrict species distributions (including at the continental scale) support a previously overlooked phenomenon: biotic interactions can isolate populations of a species. We propose 2 general mechanisms, intrusion and contraction, to classify allopatric conditions caused by various classes of biotic interactions. We present a necessary modification of the concept of ecological vicariance to include biotic interactions as possible vicariant agents regardless of whether genetic differentiation occurs or not.

Vicariance

Biotic component

10.1111/ecog.00620

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Citations (94)

Functional genetic differentiation in environmentally marginal areas: hypothesis generation based on ecological niche models and tests with phenotypic data

Authorea (Authorea) (2020)

Javier Morente‐López Jamie M. Kass Carlos Lara‐Romero Josep M. Serra‐Diaz José C. Soto-Correa

Environmental variation within a species’ range may create contrasting selective pressures, leading to divergent selection and novel adaptations in various populations. Here, we explored the potential of ecological niche models (ENMs) coupled with common-garden experiments to identify environmentally contrasting areas inside a species’ range, hypothesize putative selective pressures, and test whether populations inhabiting stressful areas have predicted differentiated phenotypes. We built an ENM for the alpine plant Silene ciliata and then conducted common-garden experiments assessing flowering time and cell resistance to extreme temperatures. The ENM’s suitability patterns and response curves led to the hypothesis that populations experiencing less snowpack and higher minimum annual temperatures would have delayed flowering. The common-garden experiments revealed genetically-based phenological differentiation among populations concordant with these hypotheses. Results supported ENMs as useful hypothesis generators for studying selection in populations inhabiting environmentally contrasting areas.

Environmental niche modelling

10.22541/au.160588458.83746985/v1

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Citations (0)

Ecological niche models as hypothesis generators of functional genetic differentiation and potential local adaptation in a Mediterranean alpine ecosystem

bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) (2020)

Javier Morente‐López Jamie M. Kass Carlos Lara‐Romero Josep M. Serra‐Diaz José C. Soto-Correa

Abstract Geographically disparate populations within a species’ range may show important differences including variation in ecological, demographic, genetic and phenotypic characteristics. Based on the Center-Periphery Hypothesis, it is often assumed that environmental conditions are optimal in the geographic center of the range and stressful or suboptimal at the periphery, implying ecological marginality is concordant with geographic periphery. But this assumption has been challenged as geographical and ecological gradients are not necessarily concordant. The conservation value of populations inhabiting environmentally marginal areas is still under debate and is closely related with their evolutionary potential. Strong selective pressures caused by stressful conditions may generate novel adaptations in marginal areas, conferring these populations distinct evolutionary potential. But populations inhabiting marginal areas may also show reductions in neutral and adaptive genetic diversity via drift and inbreeding. In this work we explore the potential of ecological niche models (ENMs) to identify environmentally optimal and marginal areas, as well as the principal putative selective pressures likely to act. To do so, we built a carefully parameterized ENM of Silene ciliata , a dominant plant species of Mediterranean alpine habitats. Complementarily, we selected wild populations inhabiting contrasting environmental conditions and carried out common garden experiments to detect genetic differentiation among populations associated with functional traits. With the resulting information, we tested whether environmentally marginal populations defined by the ENM had genetically differentiated phenotypes that are potentially adaptive and, thus, of conservation value. We found genetically based phenotypic differentiation of phenological traits between populations inhabiting areas identified by the ENM as marginal and optimal, as well as between populations with different habitat suitability values. Results supported ENMs as powerful tools for determining environmental marginality and identifying selection pressures, and thus also as hypothesis generators for divergent selection. Furthermore, genetically based phenotypic differentiation found underlines the potential adaptive value of populations inhabiting marginal areas. The approach developed here provides a theoretically justified and practical way to study adaptive processes and provide insights about the conservation value of marginal populations.

10.1101/2020.02.18.954867

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Citations (6)