Description

Have your research, studies or work required you to examine the geographic distribution of various species? This could be for crop protection, forestry, environmental protection, environmental impact assessment, urban and natural landscape design and development, or simply an interest in any given species, whether insects, pathogens or weeds. Then you are at the right place, species distribution models allow us to understand the potential and realized distribution of various species across our landscapes at different scales. Understanding of species distribution at different scales provides different insights, for example global maps support decision makers to make high level biosecurity and conservation related decisions. Meso-scale or regional maps can be used for planning of cross-border projects, informing biosecurity related cross-border operations and various environmental projects. Small scale or local maps allow researchers to design custom pest prevention, monitoring and control strategies. Allow conservationists to use evidence-based information in their plans etc. In this 3-hour workshop participants will have the opportunity to learn uses, types & limitations of species distribution models. 

This workshop is part of a 5-module series on species distribution modelling to provide researchers the ability to undertake a spatio-temporal accounting of biotic threats to crops, natural landscapes or the human society.

Outline

• Conceptual discussion on geographic distribution of Species & SDMs
• The rationale for SDMs
• Review of different SDMs