Pedology and Plant Provenance Can Improve Species Distribution Predictions of Australian Native Flora: A Calibrated and Validated Modeling Exercise on 5033 Species.

ABSTRACT: Species distribution models (SDMs) are valuable tools for assessing species' responses to environmental factors and identifying areas suitable for their survival. The careful selection of input variables is critical, as their interactions and correlations with other environmental factors can affect model performance. This study evaluates the influence of climate and soil variables on the performance of SDMs for 5033 Australian terrestrial vascular plant species, representing the largest phylogenetic diversity of native flora assessed in such an analysis. Using an ensemble of correlative models, we assessed the predictive performance of climate and soil variables, individually and in combination, across four distinct ecoregions: Desert (n = 640 species), Mediterranean (n = 124

SUBMITTER: Shabani F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12185943 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature