The influence of scale-dependent geodiversity on species distribution models in a biodiversity hotspot.

ABSTRACT: Improving models of species' distributions is essential for conservation, especially in light of global change. Species distribution models (SDMs) often rely on mean environmental conditions, yet species distributions are also a function of environmental heterogeneity and filtering acting at multiple spatial scales. Geodiversity, which we define as the variation of abiotic features and processes of Earth's entire geosphere (inclusive of climate), has potential to improve SDMs and conservation assessments, as they capture multiple abiotic dimensions of species niches, however they have not been sufficiently tested in SDMs. We tested a range of geodiversity variables computed at varying scales using climate and elevation data. We compared predictive performance of MaxEnt SDMs generated using

SUBMITTER: Gerstner BE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10859231 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature