Ecological Niche Modeling of the North American Giant Salamander: Predicting Current and Future Potential Distributions and Examining Environmental Influences

North American Giant Salamanders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis), commonly known as hellbenders, have been experiencing a population decline for decades due to human influences, such as pollution and habitat destruction. Many efforts are underway to save the hellbender but their entire potential geographical range has not been well-studied. Currently, hellbender populations are delineated by county boundaries and are on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List. The Genetic Algorithm for Rule-set Production, an Ecological Niche Model, was used to model the current hellbender potential distribution at a macro-scale under two different environmental scenarios. Additionally, future potential distributions were projected under two different climate change scenarios (Representative Concentration Pathways) to predict where possible habitat loss and expansion may occur in coming decades. Niche modeling was also used to evaluate the influence of environmental parameters across geography and between two sub-species of hellbender, the Eastern hellbender and the Ozark hellbender. Results showed that vegetation indices had some influence on current distribution predictions, while future models revealed that potentially large areas of currently suitable habitat may be lost, especially in the Ozark Mountains and the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Habitat expansion was predicted for several areas in the New England region of the northern Appalachian Mountains. The most influential variables were the maximum temperature of the warmest month, temperature annual range, and annual precipitation, while slope and elevation were less influential. However, areas of very high slope and elevation were not suitable for hellbenders, confirming previous descriptive habitat analyses. Current and future modeled distributions will provide conservationists with a more specific, and quantified, geographical and ecological description of where environmentally suitable areas exist for hellbenders. Micro-scale, stream-based studies provide areas of future research

Ecological Niche Modeling of Potential West Nile Virus Vector Mosquito Species in Iowa

Ecological niche modeling (ENM) algorithms, Maximum Entropy Species Distribution Modeling (Maxent) and Genetic Algorithm for Rule-set Prediction (GARP), were used to develop models in Iowa for three species of mosquito — two significant, extant West Nile virus (WNV) vectors (Culex pipiens L and Culex tarsalis Coquillett (Diptera: Culicidae)), and the nuisance mosquito, Aedes vexans Meigen (Diptera: Culicidae), a potential WNV bridge vector. Occurrence data for the three mosquito species from a state-wide arbovirus surveillance program were used in combination with climatic and landscape layers. Maxent successfully created more appropriate niche models with greater accuracy than GARP. The three Maxent species' models were combined and the average values were statistically compared to human WNV incidence at the census block group level. The results showed that the Maxent-modeled species' niches averaged together were a useful indicator of WNV human incidence in the state of Iowa. This simple method for creating probability distribution maps proved useful for understanding WNV dynamics and could be applied to the study of other vector-borne diseases

Darwin Core: An Evolving Community-Developed Biodiversity Data Standard

Biodiversity data derive from myriad sources stored in various formats on many distinct hardware and software platforms. An essential step towards understanding global patterns of biodiversity is to provide a standardized view of these heterogeneous data sources to improve interoperability. Fundamental to this advance are definitions of common terms. This paper describes the evolution and development of Darwin Core, a data standard for publishing and integrating biodiversity information. We focus on the categories of terms that define the standard, differences between simple and relational Darwin Core, how the standard has been implemented, and the community processes that are essential for maintenance and growth of the standard. We present case-study extensions of the Darwin Core into new research communities, including metagenomics and genetic resources. We close by showing how Darwin Core records are integrated to create new knowledge products documenting species distributions and changes due to environmental perturbations

Species distribution modeling in the cloud

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Using Ecological Niche Modeling to Predict Occurence of Rare Fish and Unionid Mussels in East Texas

Fish and Unionid mussels are important components of aquatic ecosystems and the population decline of these organisms has become a topic of concern. Currently, there are six species of concern and three-state-threatened fish species and six state-threatened Unionid species that occur in east Texas. However, little information is known about the ecology of these species. In this study, I used ecological niche modeling, the software packages Maxent, and eleven abiotic environmental parameters to predict the probability of occurrence of rare fish and mussel species in east Texas. We were unable to model the fish species; however, the models for the Unionids were statistically significant (AUC \u3e0.75). We used ENMtools to determine if the Unionid species exhibited statistically significant ecological differences and concluded that the niche models were significantly different from one another. Through the use of this software, we were able to determine locations and quantities of similar habitat and geomorphology in east Texas to help describe the amount of available habitat for these species and predict their probability of occurrence

Method evaluation of GIS-based prediction tools for biodiversity

Swedish cities are from a European point of view considered small, sparsely populated and green. Stockholm city has a great deal of its nature and older cultural landscape remaining, which is unusual in large metropolitan areas. During the last decades the spatial planning of urban environments has faced the challenge of including biodiversity concerns. This has proved to be difficult since there are no welldeveloped methods for quantifying and predicting the impacts of exploitation on biodiversity. As a result many green areas have been exploited and the flora and fauna are undergoing loss of habitats, fragmentation and alteration due to change in land use. There is an evident need to develop the planning and management methods for biodiversity in urban areas. Moreover, adequate methodologies for systematic and quantifiable predictions are needed. In this study landscape analyses have been carried out to predict the occurrence and suitable habitat in Stockholm municipality for sever birds: Lesser Spotted Woodpecker, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Green Woodpecker, Hawfinch, Nuthatch, Stock Dove and Tawny Owl. Two different prediction models have been used: an expert model and an empirical model. The basis for the study is a biotope map (Stockholm Municipality, 1999) and a species observation database (administrated by the Swedish Species Information Centre). The spatial analyses were conducted using GIS (ArcView 3.3 and ArcGIS 9.1). The most important conclusion is that it is possible to predict species distribution with both models. However, the quality and quantity of data is essential for predicting species occurrence. In this study the expert model is preferable since it is based on expert knowledge and a biotope map. The empirical model is based on occurrence data, a biotope map and software called Genetic Algorithm for Rule-set Production (GARP), which predict species distribution. The occurrence data has been gathered in an ad hoc manner. In this model the uncertainties in the occurrence data causes an overprediction mainly due to the bias in the data and the mismatch in the resolution of the biotope map and the occurrence data. The empirical model should consequently be used carefully and one should always consult with experts on different taxa and conservation biology. Which model to use depends on the available data and what knowledge there are in the certain organism group. In general it is easier to predict rare species than common ones that have a wider habitat criterion.Hur fungerar våra städer som ekosystem? Denna fråga initierade på 1970-talet ett nytt forskningsområde kallat urban ekologi. Svenska städer är från ett europeiskt perspektiv gröna och Stockholm har jämfört med andra storstäder relativt mycket grönområden. Under de senaste decennierna har stadsplaneringen arbetat för att inkludera biologisk mångfald i planeringen, vilket visat sig svårt eftersom det saknas välutvecklade metoder för att kvantifiera och förutsäga påverkan på biodiversiteten. Denna studie jämför två olika användbara prediktionsmodeller som kan förbättra stadsplaneringen. Syftet med studien var att med hjälp av ett geografiskt informationssystem (GIS) utföra landskapsanalyser för att identifiera och kvantifiera habitat i Stockholm stad för sju fågelarter: mindre hackspett, större hackspett, gröngöling, stenknäck, nötväcka, skogsduva och kattuggla. Två olika prediktionsmodeller jämfördes: en expertbaserad och en empirisk model. I studien har jag använt mig av en biotopkarta som är producerad av Stockholm universitet i samarbete med Stockholm stad (Stockholm Municipality, 1999) samt observationsdata från Rapportsystemet för Fåglar som förvaltas av ArtDatabanken. De rumsliga analyserna har utförts i ArcView 3.3 och ArcGIS 9.1. Slutsatsen av denna studie är att både expertmodellen och den empiriska modellen är verktyg som kan användas för att förutsäga arters förekomst. Kvantiteten och kvaliteten av data är vitalt för resultatet. I denna studie var expertmodellen, som är baserad på experternas kunskaper och Stockholms vegetationskarta, att föredra framför den empiriska modellen. Den empiriska modellen är baserad på observationsdata, Stockholms vegetationskarta och mjukvaran Genetic Algorithm for Rule-set Production (GARP) för att förutsäga arternas förekomst. Dagens observationsdatabaser bygger ofta på ad hoc data, vilket kan införa en bias i en empirisk modell, främst orsakat av att data inte är insamlade objektivt och att det är olika rumslig upplösning på vegetationskartan och observationerna. Sådana osäkerheter i observationsdatabasen kan ge en överprediktion. Vilken modell man ska använda beror på vilka data som är tillgängliga och vilka kunskaper som finns om organismgruppen. Ska man använda den empiriska modellen så bör man göra det med försiktighet och alltid konsultera experter på olika taxa och naturvårdsbiologi. Det är enklare att förutsäga utbredningen av hotade och ovanliga arter än vanliga arter som har bredare habitatspreferenser

Building data into knowledge: Identifying challenges and their solutions in biodiversity informatics

Biologists are in a race to document biodiversity in the face of ailing ecosystems and species decline. The drive to create knowledge to support effective documentation, measurement, and conservation of biodiversity has led the community to quickly research and develop methods to organize and connect biodiversity data across providers and throughout the world. Biodiversity data came online through distributed and disconnected databases but through time has been shaped into a biodiversity network that now represents nearly 500 million biodiversity records. The ability to access these data has brought exciting new research and new challenges. In this thesis I discuss my work to solve some of those challenges and build innovative approaches and tools for biodiversity informatics. I start by documenting tools that help improve the quality and fitness for use of data. Then I present two tools for visualizing and analyzing data in a phylogenetic and conservation context. More importantly, I discuss how designing these tools to operate within a greater knowledge creation framework can make the work of documenting patterns and processes in biodiversity faster and more resilient to future changes and improved information. At the heart of that discussion is the idea that the outputs of the tools themselves should be published and directly linked back to the original data and forward to any future analyses. The outputs should also document all models, parameters, and heuristics used do arrive at the reported outcome. In this way, both the data and our research of that data can be woven into a connected fabric of knowledge and information that links biodiversity and the digital data stored in our databases. Finally, I discuss the possibility we have for expanding our biodiversity data and improving the research we can do with it through the use of citizen science. The data available today is still deficient. Natural history collections hold a wealth of data that has not yet been digitized, but as a community we lack the resources to unlock that data quickly without a novel solution. Citizen science offers us the ability to quickly generate historical biodiversity data from natural history collections. We present a novel platform for engaging citizen scientists and developing a shared, community driven, platform to harness the potential of citizen science

Aplicación de algoritmos genéticos en problemas de Ingeniería

The determination of strategies that ease the adjustment of parameters that could optimize a process operation is a common problem in engineering. These searching parameters can find an acceptable performance, which in a solution set are denominated a local maximum, which are acceptable but not reach the efficiency of the global maximum. This paper explores the Genetic Algorithms, as a search strategy in different engineering lines, illustrating its utilities in optimization problems, where the algorithm seeks the localization of a global maximum. Through the examples, the document shows that this search methodology can find the best solution to the problem and improve the process performance.Un problema común en ingeniería, es la determinación de estrategias que faciliten el ajuste de parámetros que optimicen el funcionamiento de los procesos. Esta búsqueda de parámetros puede encontrar funcionamientos aceptables, los cuales en un conjunto de soluciones son denominados máximos locales, que son aceptables pero no se acercan en eficiencia al máximo global de la solución. Este artículo explora los Algoritmos Genéticos, como estrategia de búsqueda en diferentes líneas de la ingeniería, ilustrando sus utilidades en problemas de optimización, donde se procura la  localización del máximo global. A través de ejemplos el documento muestra que esta metodología de búsqueda, puede encontrar la mejor solución al problema planteado y optimizar el desempeño del proceso

GIS-baserad habitatmodell för mindre hackspett : ett verktyg för att bevara skyddsvärda lövskogar inom Umeälvlandskapet

Deciduous forests are, according to the National Environmental Quality Objectives, a priority area. Deciduous forests are rich in species and the occurrence of dead wood is an important factor for biodiversity. In order to identify valuable deciduous forests for bio-diversity, conservation needs good analyses and planning tools. Habitat models combined with geographic information systems can be used to study the spatial structure of suitable habitat. The Lesser spotted woodpecker (Dendrocopos minor) has been proposed as an indicator species for deciduous forests, since this species is highly specialized on insect larvae in dead wood and requires large areas of deciduous-rich environments. Many riparian forest with high species richness and high nature conservation values are found along the Ume river in Umeå municipality. The Lesser spotted woodpecker occurs frequently in alder-dominated forests along the coast and rivers in this area. This study examined tools and methods to highlight valuable deciduous forests in the landscape along the Ume river. Two models were tested, one which assembled habitat quality and one that looked at the spatial distribution of suitable habitats for the Lesser spotted woodpecker. When compared with an inventory of the Lesser spotted woodpecker in the same area, there was a good match between the models and inventory results. This study shows that the use of GIS models and an indicator species works well at the landscape level and for nature conservation planning. For a synoptic planning, the results of this work provide a good foundation for conservation assessments and help to set clear and monitorable targets for the landscape. The Lesser spotted woodpecker may be used as a symbol for riparian gray alder forests in Umeå municipality.Lövskogar är enligt de nationella miljökvalitetsmålen ett av de prioriterade områdena. Löv-skogar är artrika och förekomst av död lövved är en viktig faktor för den biologiska mång-falden. För att i naturvårdsarbetet identifiera skyddsvärda lövskogar behövs bra analys- och planeringsverktyg. Habitatmodeller kan tillsammans med geografiska informationssystem användas för att studera den rumsliga strukturen av lämpliga habitat. Den mindre hackspetten (Dendrocopos minor) tillhör en av de bästa indikatorarterna på lövskogar då de är starkt specialiserade på insektslarver i död ved och har krav på stora arealer lövträdsrika miljöer. Utmed Umeälven inom Umeå kommun finns många strandnära lövskogar med stor artrike-dom och höga naturvärden. Den mindre hackspetten återfinns här främst i aldominerade skogar längs kust och älv. I det här arbetet undersöktes verktyg och metoder för att lyfta fram värdefulla lövrika skogar inom älvlandskapet. Två modeller har testats, en som tog fram habitatens kvalité och en som betraktade den rumsliga fördelningen av lämpliga habitat för den mindre hackspetten. Vid jämförelse med en fältinventering av den mindre hackspetten inom samma område gavs en god överrensstämmelse mellan modellerna och inventeringsresultaten. Studien visar att användandet av GIS-modeller och en indikatorart fungerar bra på landskapsnivå och för naturvårdsplanering. För en översiktlig planering ger resultaten i det här arbetet goda förutsättningar att vara ett underlag vid naturvårdsbedömningar och för att sätta tydliga och uppföljningsbara mål för landskapet. Den mindre hackspetten kan komma att utgöra en symbolart för de strandnära gråalskogarna inom Umeå kommun