Urbanization Drives Habitat Suitability of the Invasive Cuban Knight Anole (<i>Anolis equestris</i>) in Florida, USA.

ABSTRACT: This study evaluates climatic and anthropogenic drivers influencing habitat suitability of invasive Cuban knight anole (Anolis equestris) in Florida and assesses their potential impact on three species of threatened invertebrates due to habitat overlap. We developed species distribution models (SDMs) using eight algorithms to evaluate habitat suitability across the native and invasive range of A. equestris. We generated ten independent pseudo-absence sets at a 1:1 ratio with presences and implemented a 10-fold cross-validation scheme. Predictor variables included effort, climatic, topographic, urbanization, and vegetation indices. We trained algorithms on 70% of the data, validated on 30%, constructed both algorithm-specific and global ensembles. The best-performing model was

SUBMITTER: Romer AS 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12520795 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature