Geomorphological disturbance is necessary for predicting fine‐scale species distributions

Disturbances related to geomorphological processes are frequent, widespread and often intense at high latitudes and altitudes, affecting the fine‐scale distribution of many plant species. While the inclusion of physical disturbances into models of species geographic ranges is widely recommended, no...

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Published in:Ecography
Main Authors: le Roux, Peter C., Virtanen, Risto, Luoto, Miska
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0587.2012.07922.x
https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1600-0587.2012.07922.x
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1600-0587.2012.07922.x
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spelling crwiley:10.1111/j.1600-0587.2012.07922.x 2024-06-02T08:15:26+00:00 Geomorphological disturbance is necessary for predicting fine‐scale species distributions le Roux, Peter C. Virtanen, Risto Luoto, Miska 2013 http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0587.2012.07922.x https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1600-0587.2012.07922.x https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1600-0587.2012.07922.x en eng Wiley http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor Ecography volume 36, issue 7, page 800-808 ISSN 0906-7590 1600-0587 journal-article 2013 crwiley https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0587.2012.07922.x 2024-05-06T07:05:14Z Disturbances related to geomorphological processes are frequent, widespread and often intense at high latitudes and altitudes, affecting the fine‐scale distribution of many plant species. While the inclusion of physical disturbances into models of species geographic ranges is widely recommended, no studies have yet tested the utility of field‐quantified geomorphological disturbances for terrestrial species distribution modelling. Here we apply generalized additive models and boosted regression trees to examine if the explicit inclusion of terrestrial and fluvial geomorphological variables alters species distribution models for 154 vascular plant, bryophyte and lichen species in north European mountain tundra. The inclusion of these disturbances significantly improved both the explanatory and predictive power of distribution models, with consistent results for all three species groups. Spatial distribution predictions changed considerably for some species after the inclusion of disturbance variables, with fluvial disturbances generating strongly linear features for species influenced by erosion or sediment deposition. As a consequence, models incorporating geomorphological variables produced markedly more refined distribution maps than simpler models. Predictions of species distributions will thus benefit strongly from the inclusion of fine‐scale geomorphological variables, particularly in areas of active earth surface processes, enabling more accurate forecasting of future species ranges under changing conditions. Article in Journal/Newspaper Tundra Wiley Online Library Ecography 36 7 800 808
institution Open Polar
collection Wiley Online Library
op_collection_id crwiley
language English
description Disturbances related to geomorphological processes are frequent, widespread and often intense at high latitudes and altitudes, affecting the fine‐scale distribution of many plant species. While the inclusion of physical disturbances into models of species geographic ranges is widely recommended, no studies have yet tested the utility of field‐quantified geomorphological disturbances for terrestrial species distribution modelling. Here we apply generalized additive models and boosted regression trees to examine if the explicit inclusion of terrestrial and fluvial geomorphological variables alters species distribution models for 154 vascular plant, bryophyte and lichen species in north European mountain tundra. The inclusion of these disturbances significantly improved both the explanatory and predictive power of distribution models, with consistent results for all three species groups. Spatial distribution predictions changed considerably for some species after the inclusion of disturbance variables, with fluvial disturbances generating strongly linear features for species influenced by erosion or sediment deposition. As a consequence, models incorporating geomorphological variables produced markedly more refined distribution maps than simpler models. Predictions of species distributions will thus benefit strongly from the inclusion of fine‐scale geomorphological variables, particularly in areas of active earth surface processes, enabling more accurate forecasting of future species ranges under changing conditions.
format Article in Journal/Newspaper
author le Roux, Peter C.
Virtanen, Risto
Luoto, Miska
spellingShingle le Roux, Peter C.
Virtanen, Risto
Luoto, Miska
Geomorphological disturbance is necessary for predicting fine‐scale species distributions
author_facet le Roux, Peter C.
Virtanen, Risto
Luoto, Miska
author_sort le Roux, Peter C.
title Geomorphological disturbance is necessary for predicting fine‐scale species distributions
title_short Geomorphological disturbance is necessary for predicting fine‐scale species distributions
title_full Geomorphological disturbance is necessary for predicting fine‐scale species distributions
title_fullStr Geomorphological disturbance is necessary for predicting fine‐scale species distributions
title_full_unstemmed Geomorphological disturbance is necessary for predicting fine‐scale species distributions
title_sort geomorphological disturbance is necessary for predicting fine‐scale species distributions
publisher Wiley
publishDate 2013
url http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0587.2012.07922.x
https://api.wiley.com/onlinelibrary/tdm/v1/articles/10.1111%2Fj.1600-0587.2012.07922.x
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/j.1600-0587.2012.07922.x
genre Tundra
genre_facet Tundra
op_source Ecography
volume 36, issue 7, page 800-808
ISSN 0906-7590 1600-0587
op_rights http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor
op_doi https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0587.2012.07922.x
container_title Ecography
container_volume 36
container_issue 7
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