Predictive Species and Habitat Modeling in Landscape Ecology


Book Description

Most projects in Landscape Ecology, at some point, define a species-habitat association. These models are inherently spatial, dealing with landscapes and their configurations. Whether coding behavioral rules for dispersal of simulated organisms through simulated landscapes, or designing the sampling extent of field surveys and experiments in real landscapes, landscape ecologists must make assumptions about how organisms experience and utilize the landscape. These convenient working postulates allow modelers to project the model in time and space, yet rarely are they explicitly considered. The early years of landscape ecology necessarily focused on the evolution of effective data sources, metrics, and statistical approaches that could truly capture the spatial and temporal patterns and processes of interest. Now that these tools are well established, we reflect on the ecological theories that underpin the assumptions commonly made during species distribution modeling and mapping. This is crucial for applying models to questions of global sustainability. Due to the inherent use of GIS for much of this kind of research, and as several authors’ research involves the production of multicolored map figures, there would be an 8-page color insert. Additional color figures could be made available through a digital archive, or by cost contributions of the chapter authors. Where applicable, would be relevant chapters’ GIS data and model code available through a digital archive. The practice of data and code sharing is becoming standard in GIS studies, is an inherent method of this book, and will serve to add additional research value to the book for both academic and practitioner audiences.




Habitat Suitability and Distribution Models


Book Description

This book introduces the key stages of niche-based habitat suitability model building, evaluation and prediction required for understanding and predicting future patterns of species and biodiversity. Beginning with the main theory behind ecological niches and species distributions, the book proceeds through all major steps of model building, from conceptualization and model training to model evaluation and spatio-temporal predictions. Extensive examples using R support graduate students and researchers in quantifying ecological niches and predicting species distributions with their own data, and help to address key environmental and conservation problems. Reflecting this highly active field of research, the book incorporates the latest developments from informatics and statistics, as well as using data from remote sources such as satellite imagery. A website at www.unil.ch/hsdm contains the codes and supporting material required to run the examples and teach courses.




Joint Species Distribution Modelling


Book Description

A comprehensive account of joint species distribution modelling, covering statistical analyses in light of modern community ecology theory.




Evaluation of diagnostic systems


Book Description

Evaluation of Diagnostic Systems: Methods from Signal Detection Theory addresses the many issues that arise in evaluating the performance of a diagnostic system, across the wide range of settings in which such systems are used. These settings include clinical medicine, industrial quality control, environmental monitoring and investigation, machine and metals inspection, military monitoring, information retrieval, and crime investigation. The book is divided into three parts encompassing 11 chapters that emphasize the interpretation of diagnostic visual images by human observers. The first part of the book describes quantitative methods for measuring the accuracy of a system and the statistical techniques for drawing inferences from performance tests. The subsequent part covers study design and includes a detailed description of the form and conduct of an image-interpretation test. The concluding part examines the case study of a medical imaging system that serves as an example of both simple and complex applications. In this part, three mammographic modalities are used: industrial film radiography, low-dose film radiography, and xeroradiography. The case study focuses on the overall reliability of accuracy indices made by its main components, that is, the variabilities across cases, across readers, and within individual readers. The supplementary texts provide study protocols, a computer program for processing test results, and an extensive list of references that will assist the reader in applying those evaluative methods to diagnostic systems in any setting. This book is of value to scientists and engineers, as well as to applied, quantitative, or experimental psychologists who are engaged in the study of the human processes of discrimination and decision making in either perceptual or cognitive tasks.




The SAGE Handbook of Biogeography


Book Description

A superb resource for understanding the diversity of the modern discipline of biogeography, and its history and future, especially within geography departments. I expect to refer to it often. - Professor Sally Horn, University of Tennessee "As you browse through this fine book you will be struck by the diverse topics that biogeographers investigate and the many research methods they use.... Biogeography is interdisciplinary, and a commonly-voiced concern is that one biogeographer may not readily understand another′s research findings. A handbook like this is important for synthesising, situating, explaining and evaluating a large literature, and pointing the reader to informative publications." - Geographical Research "A valuable contribution in both a research and teaching context. If you are biologically trained, it provides an extensive look into the geographical tradition of biogeography, covering some topics that may be less familiar to those with an evolution/ecology background. Alternatively, if you are a geography student, researcher, or lecturer, it will provide a useful reference and will be invaluable to the non-biogeographer who suddenly has the teaching of an introductory biogeography course thrust upon them." - Adam C. Algar, Frontiers of Biogeography The SAGE Handbook of Biogeography is a manual for scoping the past, present and future of biogeography that enable readers to consider, where relevant, how similar biogeographical issues are tackled by researchers in different ′schools′. In line with the concept of all SAGE Handbooks, this is a retrospective and prospective overview of biogeography that will: Consider the main areas of biogeography researched by geographers Detail a global perspective by incorporating the work of different schools of biogeographers Ecplore the divergent evolution of biogeography as a discipline and consider how this diversity can be harnessed Examine the interdisciplinary debates that biogeographers are contributing to within geography and the biological sciences. Aimed at an international audience of research students, academics, researchers and practitioners in biogeography, the text will attract interest from environmental scientists, ecologists, biologists and geographers alike.




Ecohydraulics


Book Description

Ecohydraulics: An Integrated Approachprovides a research level text which highlights recent developments of this emerging and expanding field. With a focus on interdisciplinary research the text examines:- the evolution and scope of ecohydraulics interactions between hydraulics, hydrology, fluvial geomorphology and aquatic ecology the application of habitat modelling in ecohydraulic studies state of the art methodological developments and approaches detailed case studies including fish passage design and the management of environmental flow regimes research needs and the future of ecohydraulics research The contributions offer broad geographic coverage to encapsulate the wide range of approaches, case studies and methods used to conduct ecohydraulics research. The book considers a range of spatial and temporal scales of relevance and aquatic organisms ranging from algae and macrophytes to macroinvertebrates and fish. River management and restoration are also considered in detail, making this volume of direct relevance to those concerned with cutting edge research and its application for water resource management. Aimed at academics and postgraduate researchers in departments of physical geography, earth sciences, environmental science, environmental management, civil engineering, biology, zoology, botany and ecology; Ecohydraulics: An Integrated Approach will be of direct relevance to academics, researchers and professionals working in environmental research organisations, national agencies and consultancies.







Mapping Species Distributions


Book Description

Maps of species' distributions or habitat suitability are required for many aspects of environmental research, resource management and conservation planning. These include biodiversity assessment, reserve design, habitat management and restoration, species and habitat conservation plans and predicting the effects of environmental change on species and ecosystems. The proliferation of methods and uncertainty regarding their effectiveness can be daunting to researchers, resource managers and conservation planners alike. Franklin summarises the methods used in species distribution modeling (also called niche modeling) and presents a framework for spatial prediction of species distributions based on the attributes (space, time, scale) of the data and questions being asked. The framework links theoretical ecological models of species distributions to spatial data on species and environment, and statistical models used for spatial prediction. Providing practical guidelines to students, researchers and practitioners in a broad range of environmental sciences including ecology, geography, conservation biology, and natural resources management.




Models of the Ecological Hierarchy


Book Description

In the application of statistics to ecological inference problems, hierarchical models combine explicit models of ecological system structure or dynamics with models of how ecological systems are observed. The principles of hierarchical modeling are applied in this book to a wide range of problems ranging from the molecular level, through populations, ecosystems, landscapes, networks, through to the global ecosphere. - Provides an excellent introduction to modelling - Collects together in one source a wide range of modelling techniques - Covers a wide range of topics, from the molecular level to the global ecosphere




Models for Planning Wildlife Conservation in Large Landscapes


Book Description

A single-resource volume of information on the most current and effective techniques of wildlife modeling, Models for Planning Wildlife Conservation in Large Landscapes is appropriate for students and researchers alike. The unique blend of conceptual, methodological, and application chapters discusses research, applications and concepts of modeling and presents new ideas and strategies for wildlife habitat models used in conservation planning. The book makes important contributions to wildlife conservation of animals in several ways: (1) it highlights historical and contemporary advancements in the development of wildlife habitat models and their implementation in conservation planning; (2) it provides practical advice for the ecologist conducting such studies; and (3) it supplies directions for future research including new strategies for successful studies.Intended to provide a recipe for successful development of wildlife habitat models and their implementation in conservation planning, the book could be used in studying wildlife habitat models, conservation planning, and management techniques. Additionally it may be a supplemental text in courses dealing with quantitative assessment of wildlife populations. Additionally, the length of the book would be ideal for graduate student seminar course.Using wildlife habitat models in conservation planning is of considerable interest to wildlife biologists. With ever tightening budgets for wildlife research and planning activities, there is a growing need to use computer methods. Use of simulation models represents the single best alternative. However, it is imperative that these techniques be described in a single source. Moreover, biologists should be made aware of alternative modeling techniques. It is also important that practical guidance be provided to biologists along with a demonstration of utility of these procedures. Currently there is little guidance in the wildlife or natural resource planning literature on how best to incorporate wildlife planning activities, particularly community-based approaches. Now is the perfect time for a synthestic publication that clearly outlines the concepts and available methods, and illustrates them. - Only single resource book of information not only on various wildlife modeling techniques, but also with practical guidance on the demonstrated utility of each based on real-world conditions. - Provides concepts, methods and applications for wildlife ecologists and others within a GIS context. - Written by a team of subject-area experts