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Clark Labs Partners with Conservation International to Model Species Distribution and Biodiversity for the Andean Region 8/8/06 Worcester, MA -- Clark Labs and Conservation International have recently signed an agreement to explore the use of species range polygons (drawn by experts) as inputs to species distribution modeling procedures based on environmental variables. The goal is to develop a procedure for the semi-automated processing of range polygon archives to develop new species distribution maps and maps of biodiversity at a 1 km resolution for all of South America. The project will utilize techniques and approaches to land change and biodiversity modeling developed from previous collaborations to address the problem of information data gaps. Specifically, the Land Change Modeler (LCM) software application within IDRISI Andes, commissioned by Conservation International’s Andes Center for Biodiversity Conservation, will be used as the basis for this work. The premise for this project is that the large archives of range polygons developed by Conservation International’s partners (including NatureServe), represent an important resource. It is also based on the assumption that recently developed procedures within LCM can be effectively used to refine these polygons and bridge across gaps. The scope of the project includes testing of the polygon refinement procedure, a comparative analysis of species distribution modeling techniques, development of a processing protocol with the aim of automation and a validation analysis using selected species where good observation point samples exist. In addition, it involves a review of environmental variables used in previous studies and the development of a 1 km archive of variables to use in the testing. Finally, pending a successful conclusion to these investigations, Clark Labs will create maps of the modeled ranges of over 16,000 species as well as provide a spatially explicit characterization and differentiation of biodiversity in the region, including measures of species richness (alpha and gamma diversity), species turnover (beta diversity) and range restriction. Both the refined polygons and biodiversity characterizations will be provided for all South America at a 1km resolution. For further information, please contact Clark Labs, Worcester, MA. Tel: 508-793-7526.
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Original range polygon, newly modeled range and validation points for the Bradypus variegates (brown-throated three-toed sloth). The newly modeled range was based on a confidence analysis of the original range polygon followed by an empirical modeling using the Weighted Mahalanobis Typicalities procedure in IDRISI’s Land Change Modeler. The observation points were not used in the analysis. Rather, they are used for validation.
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