Environmental Science
C. Turan
Abstract
The present study aims to predict the potential geographic distribution and future expansion of invasive alien lionfish (Pterois miles) with ecological niche modelling along the Mediterranean Sea. The primary data consisted of occurrence points of P. miles in the Mediterranean and marine climatic data ...
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The present study aims to predict the potential geographic distribution and future expansion of invasive alien lionfish (Pterois miles) with ecological niche modelling along the Mediterranean Sea. The primary data consisted of occurrence points of P. miles in the Mediterranean and marine climatic data layers were collected from global databases. All the used models run 100% success predictions, and true skill statistics and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve values ranged from 0.42 and 0.71 to 0.86 and 0.95 for current distribution modelling; and 0.0 and 0.0 to 0.83 and 0.94 for the future distribution modelling, respectively. The mean sea surface temperature and maximum bathymetry played an important role in the prediction of the model and explained relatively higher biological importance to the extension and adaptation of P. miles with extreme environmental factors. The predicted suitable habitats of P. miles under the current climate dominantly occurred in the east parts of coastal areas of the Mediterranean. The predicted future suitable habitats of P. miles revealed that P. miles increase its range of distribution dominantly to the central and west part of the Mediterranean in a spatial extent, indicating high suitability of these areas for its future distribution.
J.C. Paquit; R.I.P. Rama
Abstract
The potential effect of invasive plant species on biodiversity is one of most important subject of inquiry at present. In many parts of the world, the alarming spread of these plants has been documented. Knowing that climate exerts a dominant control over the distribution of plant species, predictions ...
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The potential effect of invasive plant species on biodiversity is one of most important subject of inquiry at present. In many parts of the world, the alarming spread of these plants has been documented. Knowing that climate exerts a dominant control over the distribution of plant species, predictions can therefore be made to determine which areas the species would likely spread under a climate change scenario and that is what this study aims to tackle. In the current study, a total of 211 species occurrence points were used to model the current and projected suitability of Piper aduncum in Bukidnon, Philippines using Maxent. Results revealed that the suitability of the species was determined primarily by climatic factors with Bio 18 (precipitation of the warmest quarter) as the strongest influencing variable with a mean percent contribution of 22.1%. The resulting model was highly accurate based on its mean test Area Under Curve that is equal to 0.917. Current prediction shows that suitable areas for Piper are concentrated along the southern portion of Bukidnon. Only 9% of the province is suitable for the species at present but is predicted to increase to 27% because of climate change. The central and southwestern parts of the province are the areas of high threat for invasion by Piper.
Environmental Management
R. Mirzaei; M.R. Hemami; A. Esmaili Sari; H.R. Rezaei; A.T. Peterson
Abstract
Understanding distributions of wildlife species is a key step towards identifying biodiversity hotspots and designing effective conservation strategies. In this paper, the spatial pattern of diversity of birds in Golestan Province, Iran was estimated. Ecological niche modeling was used to determine distributions ...
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Understanding distributions of wildlife species is a key step towards identifying biodiversity hotspots and designing effective conservation strategies. In this paper, the spatial pattern of diversity of birds in Golestan Province, Iran was estimated. Ecological niche modeling was used to determine distributions of 144 bird species across the province using a maximum entropy algorithm. Richness maps across all birds, and separately for rare and threatened species, were prepared as approximations to hotspots. Results showed close similarity between hotspots for all birds and those for rare birds; hotspots were concentrated in the southern and especially the southwestern parts of the province. Hotspots for threatened birds tended more to the central and especially the western parts of the province, which include coastal habitats. Based on three criteria, it is clear that the western part is the most important area of the province in terms of bird Faunas. Despite some shortcomings, hotspot analysis for birds could be applied to guide conservation efforts and provide useful tool towards efficient conservation action.
