The cumulative niche approach: A framework to assess the performance of ecological niche model projections.

ABSTRACT: Ecological Niche Models (ENMs) are often used to project species distributions within alien ranges and in future climatic scenarios. However, ENMs depend on species-environment equilibrium, which may be absent for actively expanding species. We present a novel framework to estimate whether species have reached environmental equilibrium in their native and alien ranges. The method is based on the estimation of niche breadth with the accumulation of species occurrences. An asymptote will indicate exhaustive knowledge of the realised niches. We demonstrate the CNA framework for 26 species of mammals, amphibians, and birds. Possible outcomes of the framework include: (1) There is enough data to quantify the native and alien realised niches, allowing us to calculate niche expansion between the

SUBMITTER: Arle E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10880136 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature