Understanding the impacts of global change on organisms and ecosystems requires data and models that represent ecologically-relevant conditions. Here we will provide a hands-on coding workshop to understand microclimate data, and use R packages (e.g. NicheMapR, microclimf, TrenchR) to mechanistically predict microclimate anywhere on the terrestrial planet. This will include retrieving remote sensing data to [...]
Understanding the mechanisms underlying the distribution of biodiversity lies at the core of macroecology and biogeography. To more accurately characterize how organisms experience and interact with their environment, biogeographers can now integrate microclimate models and biophysical models with Species Distribution Models (SDM). This workshop will present software for microclimate and biophysical modeling by working [...]
Species distribution modeling (SDM) enables conservation scientists to make range estimates for species of concern, as well as predictions of potential range in unsampled areas and for different time periods. With colleagues, we recently (Kass et al., Ecography 2023) developed the application Wallace EcoMod (https://wallaceecomod.github.io/), which offers access to the latest SDM tools through [...]
Understanding paleoclimatic variations is crucial for deciphering the historical shifts in global ecosystems, which have shaped today's biodiversity. The Temporal Altitudinal Biogeographical Shifts (TABS) R package is a powerful tool designed to model these shifts, providing spatially detailed reconstructions over continuous time series. This workshop aims to equip participants with the knowledge and skills [...]
Species distribution models (SDMs) are widely used as a tool for understanding species spatial ecology. They link species occurrence or abundance with environmental features of the location, via statistical modelling. According to ecological niche theory, species response curves are unimodal with respect to environmental gradients. A general problem with most habitat modelling approaches is [...]
sdm is a comprehensive modelling and simulation framework that enables fitting of individual and community-based species distribution models, while supporting markedly different modelling methods including correlative, process-based (mechanistic), agent-based, and cellular automata. It generates ensembles of models, and several options for evaluation of model results and projection of species potential distributions in space and [...]
Bayesian Additive Regression Trees (BART) are a powerful machine learning technique with very promising applications in ecology and biogeography in general, and in species distribution modelling (SDM) in particular. BART can produce highly accurate predictions without overfitting to noise or to particular cases in the data. Notably, unlike most SDM methods, BART generally shows [...]
Biodiversity data publishing is critical for several reasons, ranging from scientific research and conservation to policy-making and education. Darwin Core, a standardized framework for sharing biodiversity information, plays a crucial role in facilitating the effective use of biodiversity data. We this approach we are responding to WALLACEAN SHORTFALL - The Wallacean shortfall is named [...]
Historical biogeography methods have long been dominated by the "dispersal versus vicariance" debate, and different computer programs (e.g. DIVA, Lagrange, BayArea) have made different fixed assumptions about the importance of these processes. Researchers typically just run the different programs, and observe whether or not the inferences differ, but they have no ability to judge, [...]
The International Biogeography Society seeks proposals for workshops for the 2024 Biennial Conference, 7-11 January, 2024 in Prague, Czech Republic. Have an idea as an organizer? Submit a proposal before Jan 15, 2023.
