What matters most for the performance of ecological niche models: ecological niche characteristics or data structure? An evaluation using hypothetical species.

CASAGRANDA M. DOLORES; MARTINEZ-MEYER ENRIQUE

Creta

Congreso; 5th International Biogeography Society Conference; 2011

International Biogeography Society

In recent years, Ecological Niche Modelling (ENM) has proven useful in a wide array of basic and applied questions in biogeography, ecology, evolution, and conservation biology. However,despite several explorations regarding the performance of different modelling methods, most of them have been made using data from real species from which characteristics of their ecological niches and sample data are incomplete, thus limiting our understanding to learn which models perform better under what circumstances. Herein, we evaluate the performance of a number of niche modelling methods to produce geographical distributions using hypothetical species for which we have full control over their ecological niche characteristics and data structure, with the aim to determine strengths and limitations of modelling approaches. Our results have implications in applications of ecological niche models, conservation and biogeography (e.g., identification of areas of endemism).