Challenges in identifying sites climatically matched to the native ranges of animal invaders.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Species distribution models are often used to characterize a species' native range climate, so as to identify sites elsewhere in the world that may be climatically similar and therefore at risk of invasion by the species. This endeavor provoked intense public controversy over recent attempts to model areas at risk of invasion by the Indian Python (Python molurus). We evaluated a number of MaxEnt models on this species to assess MaxEnt's utility for vertebrate climate matching.

Methodology/principal findings

Overall, we found MaxEnt models to be very sensitive to modeling choices and selection of input localities and background regions. As used, MaxEnt invoked minimal protections against data dredging, multi-collinearity of explanatory axes, and overfitting. As use

SUBMITTER: Rodda GH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3036589 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature