Are we overestimating the niche? Removing marginal localities helps ecological niche models detect environmental barriers.
Are we overestimating the niche? Removing marginal localities helps ecological niche models detect environmental barriers.
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DOI：
10.1002/ece3.1900
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发表时间：
2016-03
影响因子：
2.6
通讯作者：
Anderson RP
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Soley-Guardia M;Gutiérrez EE;Thomas DM;Ochoa-G J;Aguilera M;Anderson RP
相关生态位模型（ENMs）估计物种生态位的发生记录和环境数据。这些工具对地理学领域很有价值，它们通常用于推断种群之间的潜在联系。然而，最近的一项研究表明，当当地相关的环境数据不可用时，来自合适栖息地的斑块的记录突出到其他不合适的区域（例如，干旱地区的廊道森林）可能导致对物种生态位及其潜在分布的高估。在这里，我们测试这个问题是否混淆了一个明显的环境障碍存在于委内瑞拉北方的检测-炎热和干旱的低地分隔Península de Péquaná从南美洲大陆。这些条件很可能促进了该地区中部栖息地三个啮齿动物谱系的大陆和半岛种群之间的隔离。对于每一个血统，我们校准最佳参数化的ENM只使用大陆记录，并利用现有的栖息地描述，以评估那些分配的低适宜性值是否对应的情况下，该物种被收集在当地的中温条件下，否则炎热干燥的地区。在这种情况下，我们构建了一个排除这些记录的额外模型。我们将这两种模型投射到半岛上，并评估它们检测环境障碍的能力是否不同。对于我们检测到这种有问题的记录的两个谱系，只有排除它们的模型才能检测到障碍，同时提供有关半岛人口的额外见解。总的来说，这项研究揭示了一个简单的程序，如这里应用的一个可以处理记录有问题的ENM，导致更好的预测有关的潜在影响的环境血统分歧。
Correlative ecological niche models (ENMs) estimate species niches using occurrence records and environmental data. These tools are valuable to the field of biogeography, where they are commonly used to infer potential connectivity among populations. However, a recent study showed that when locally relevant environmental data are not available, records from patches of suitable habitat protruding into otherwise unsuitable regions (e.g., gallery forests within dry areas) can lead to overestimations of species niches and their potential distributions. Here, we test whether this issue obfuscates detection of an obvious environmental barrier existing in northern Venezuela – that of the hot and xeric lowlands separating the Península de Paraguaná from mainland South America. These conditions most likely promote isolation between mainland and peninsular populations of three rodent lineages occurring in mesic habitat in this region. For each lineage, we calibrated optimally parameterized ENMs using mainland records only, and leveraged existing habitat descriptions to assess whether those assigned low suitability values corresponded to instances where the species was collected within locally mesic conditions amidst otherwise hot dry areas. When this was the case, we built an additional model excluding these records. We projected both models onto the peninsula and assessed whether they differed in their ability to detect the environmental barrier. For the two lineages in which we detected such problematic records, only the models built excluding them detected the barrier, while providing additional insights regarding peninsular populations. Overall, the study reveals how a simple procedure like the one applied here can deal with records problematic for ENMs, leading to better predictions regarding the potential effects of the environment on lineage divergence.