IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/ecomod/v246y2012icp86-90.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The usefulness of elevation as a predictor variable in species distribution modelling

Author

Listed:
  • Hof, Anouschka R.
  • Jansson, Roland
  • Nilsson, Christer

Abstract

Species distribution models (SDMs) are increasingly used to forecast impacts of climate change on species geographic distributions, but the reliability of predictions is scrutinized. The main limitation of SDMs lies in their assumption that species’ ranges are determined mostly by climate, which is arguable. For instance, biotic interactions, habitat and elevation may affect species ranges. The inclusion of habitat-related variables as predictors in SDMs is generally accepted, but there is no consensus regarding the inclusion of elevation. A review of randomly chosen literature revealed that elevation is used as a predictor variable by just over half of the papers studied with no apparent trends as to why, except that papers predicting mammal species distributions for large regions included elevation more often than not, and that papers that predicted mammal ranges for small regions tended to exclude elevation. In addition, we compared the performance of SDMs with and without elevation as a predictor variable for the distribution of north European mammals and plants and found that the difference between their performances is statistically significant for mammals, slightly favouring exclusion of elevation. No differences were found for plants.

Suggested Citation

  • Hof, Anouschka R. & Jansson, Roland & Nilsson, Christer, 2012. "The usefulness of elevation as a predictor variable in species distribution modelling," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 246(C), pages 86-90.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:246:y:2012:i:c:p:86-90
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2012.07.028
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304380012003778
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2012.07.028?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrew J. Davis & Linda S. Jenkinson & John H. Lawton & Bryan Shorrocks & Simon Wood, 1998. "Making mistakes when predicting shifts in species range in response to global warming," Nature, Nature, vol. 391(6669), pages 783-786, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kosicki, Jakub Z., 2017. "Should topographic metrics be considered when predicting species density of birds on a large geographical scale? A case of Random Forest approach," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 349(C), pages 76-85.
    2. Oke, Oluwatobi A. & Thompson, Ken A., 2015. "Distribution models for mountain plant species: The value of elevation," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 301(C), pages 72-77.
    3. Meineri, Eric & Dahlberg, C. Johan & Hylander, Kristoffer, 2015. "Using Gaussian Bayesian Networks to disentangle direct and indirect associations between landscape physiography, environmental variables and species distribution," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 313(C), pages 127-136.
    4. Rai, Anu & Bashir, Tawqir & Lagunes – Díaz, Elio Guarionex & Shrestha, Bibek, 2023. "Modeling Ganges river dolphin distribution and prioritizing areas for efficient conservation planning- a range-wide assessment," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 481(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Anne Goodenough & Adam Hart, 2013. "Correlates of vulnerability to climate-induced distribution changes in European avifauna: habitat, migration and endemism," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 118(3), pages 659-669, June.
    2. Barlett, Trinidad Ruiz & Laguna, María Fabiana & Abramson, Guillermo & Monjeau, Adrian & Martin, Gabriel, 2024. "A new distributional model coupling environmental and biotic factors," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 489(C).
    3. Choden, Kunzang & Nitschke, Craig R. & Stewart, Stephen B. & Keenan, Rodney J., 2021. "The potential impacts of climate change on the distribution of key tree species and Cordyceps in Bhutan: Implications for ecological functions and rural livelihoods," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 455(C).
    4. Trnka, M. & Muška, F. & Semerádová, D. & Dubrovský, M. & Kocmánková, E. & Žalud, Z., 2007. "European Corn Borer life stage model: Regional estimates of pest development and spatial distribution under present and future climate," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 207(2), pages 61-84.
    5. Rocio Santiago & Monica Cristina Martins & Tais Nascimento & Luis Filipe de Barros & Matheus Vilaca & Emerson Peter Falcão & Nicacio Henriques da Silva & Maria Estrella Legaz & Carlos Vicente & Eugen, 2021. "Production of Bioactive Lichen Compounds by Alginate-Immobilized Bionts Isolated from Cladonia verticillaris: An in Vitro Study," Journal of Plant Studies, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 9(1), pages 1-43, December.
    6. Mohd, Mohd Hafiz, 2019. "Diversity in interaction strength promotes rich dynamical behaviours in a three-species ecological system," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 353(C), pages 243-253.
    7. Zdeněk Laštůvka, 2009. "Climate change and its possible influence on the occurrence and importance of insect pests," Plant Protection Science, Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, vol. 45(SpecialIs), pages 53-62.
    8. Gaikwad, Jitendra & Wilson, Peter D. & Ranganathan, Shoba, 2011. "Ecological niche modeling of customary medicinal plant species used by Australian Aborigines to identify species-rich and culturally valuable areas for conservation," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(18), pages 3437-3443.
    9. Rinnan, D. Scott, 2018. "Population persistence in the face of climate change and competition: A battle on two fronts," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 385(C), pages 78-88.
    10. Takuya Iwamura & Kerrie A Wilson & Oscar Venter & Hugh P Possingham, 2010. "A Climatic Stability Approach to Prioritizing Global Conservation Investments," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(11), pages 1-9, November.
    11. Mohd, Mohd Hafiz & Murray, Rua & Plank, Michael J. & Godsoe, William, 2016. "Effects of dispersal and stochasticity on the presence–absence of multiple species," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 342(C), pages 49-59.
    12. Mohd, Mohd Hafiz & Park, Junpyo, 2021. "The interplay of rock-paper-scissors competition and environments mediates species coexistence and intriguing dynamics," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 153(P1).
    13. Munoz, François, 2009. "Distance-based eigenvector maps (DBEM) to analyse metapopulation structure with irregular sampling," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 220(20), pages 2683-2689.
    14. Shengman Lyu & Jake M. Alexander, 2022. "Competition contributes to both warm and cool range edges," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-9, December.
    15. Ariel E Marcy & Scott Fendorf & James L Patton & Elizabeth A Hadly, 2013. "Morphological Adaptations for Digging and Climate-Impacted Soil Properties Define Pocket Gopher (Thomomys spp.) Distributions," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 8(5), pages 1-14, May.
    16. Buse, Jörn & Griebeler, Eva Maria, 2011. "Incorporating classified dispersal assumptions in predictive distribution models – A case study with grasshoppers and bush-crickets," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(13), pages 2130-2141.
    17. McRae, Brad H. & Schumaker, Nathan H. & McKane, Robert B. & Busing, Richard T. & Solomon, Allen M. & Burdick, Connie A., 2008. "A multi-model framework for simulating wildlife population response to land-use and climate change," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 219(1), pages 77-91.
    18. Mohd, Mohd Hafiz & Murray, Rua & Plank, Michael J. & Godsoe, William, 2017. "Effects of biotic interactions and dispersal on the presence-absence of multiple species," Chaos, Solitons & Fractals, Elsevier, vol. 99(C), pages 185-194.
    19. Daniel K Gibson-Reinemer & Frank J Rahel, 2015. "Inconsistent Range Shifts within Species Highlight Idiosyncratic Responses to Climate Warming," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(7), pages 1-15, July.
    20. Chefaoui, Rosa M. & Lobo, Jorge M., 2008. "Assessing the effects of pseudo-absences on predictive distribution model performance," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 210(4), pages 478-486.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:246:y:2012:i:c:p:86-90. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.journals.elsevier.com/ecological-modelling .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.