Population distribution models: species distributions are better modeled using biologically relevant data partitions

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Predicting the geographic distribution of widespread species through modeling is problematic for several reasons including high rates of omission errors. One potential source of error for modeling widespread species is that subspecies and/or races of species are frequently pooled for analyses, which may mask biologically relevant spatial variation within the distribution of a single widespread species. We contrast a presence-only maximum entropy model for the widely distributed oldfield mouse (<it>Peromyscus polionotus</it>) that includes all available presence locations for this species, with two composite maximum entropy models. The composite models either subdivided the total species distribution into four geographic quadrants or by fifteen subspecies to capture spatially relevant variation in <it>P. polionotus </it>distributions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Despite high Area Under the ROC Curve (AUC) values for all models, the composite species distribution model of <it>P. polionotus </it>generated from individual subspecies models represented the known distribution of the species much better than did the models produced by partitioning data into geographic quadrants or modeling the whole species as a single unit.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Because the AUC values failed to describe the differences in the predictability of the three modeling strategies, we suggest using omission curves in addition to AUC values to assess model performance. Dividing the data of a widespread species into biologically relevant partitions greatly increased the performance of our distribution model; therefore, this approach may prove to be quite practical and informative for a wide range of modeling applications.</p

New species of Hsunycteris.

26 pages : illustrations (some color), map ; 26 cm.A new species of the nectarivorous bat genus Hsunycteris is described from lowland Amazonian forest in northeastern Peru. The new species, H. dashe, can be distinguished from other congeners by its larger size; V-shaped array of dermal chin papillae separated by a wide basal cleft; metacarpal V longer than metacarpal IV; broad rostrum; lateral margin of infraorbital foramen not projecting beyond rostral outline in dorsal view; well-developed sphenoidal crest; large outer upper incisors; weakly developed lingual cusp on P5; and well-developed, labially oriented M1 parastyle. A phylogenetic analysis of cytochrome-b sequence data indicates that H. dashe is sister to a clade that includes all other species of the genus including H. cadenai, H. pattoni, and a paraphyletic H. thomasi. We provide a key based on craniodental and external characters of all four known species of Hsunycteris

Supplementary materials from Phylogenetic, morphological and niche differentiation unveil new species limits for the big brown bat (<i>Eptesicus fuscus</i>)

Tables of NCBI Genbank accession numbers, morphological characters measured, morphological variation data summary. Figures for locality map used in spatial analyses, additional results of DAPC populations structure analysis, reticulated network SplitsTree result, PCA test for dimorphism, boxplot summary of morphological variation, histograms of ecological niche simulations to test for equivalency

The Importance of Late Quaternary Climate Change and Karst on Distributions of Caribbean Mormoopid Bats

The bat family Mormoopidae includes three species with distributions in the Caribbean. These taxa—Mormoops blainvillei, Pteronotus parnellii, and P. quadridens—roost predominantly in hot cave chambers where temperatures may reach 40° C and humidity is close to 100%. We tested the hypothesis that mormoopid bat extirpations in this region were due to climatic changes and the loss of suitable cave environments due to flooding caused by sea level rise associated with the late Pleistocene to Holocene (ca. 10 ka) climate change transition. Ecological niche models (ENMs) were developed to estimate the current, mid-Holocene, and Last Glacial Maximum distributions of these three bat species and to assess whether suitable climatic habitat for these taxa had been stable across time in the Caribbean. Additionally, we examined the importance of karst formations (where hot caves typically form) as a predictor for the distributions of Caribbean mormoopid bats. Our results show that mormoopid bat distributions in the Caribbean have remained relatively stable over time with climate ENMs indicating up to a 19% expansion in the amount of suitable habitat from late Pleistocene to the present. Presence of karst was a good predictor when used alone or when combined as karst-climate ENMs. Fossil evidence shows that some populations of mormoopids became extirpated as recently as 3.6 ka. These data, taken together with our conclusion that suitable climate habitat for mormoopid bats existed in the Caribbean beyond late Pleistocene to Holocene transition, suggest that these bats may have survived this climate change event by roosting outside their characteristic hot cave environment

Climate change and Caribbean bats.

32 pages : color illustrations, maps (some color) ; 26 cm.The bat family Mormoopidae includes three species with distributions in the Caribbean. These taxa--Mormoops blainvillei, Pteronotus parnellii, and P. quadridens--roost predominantly in hot cave chambers where temperatures may reach 40° C and humidity is close to 100%. We tested the hypothesis that mormoopid bat extirpations in this region were due to climatic changes and the loss of suitable cave environments due to flooding caused by sea level rise associated with the late Pleistocene to Holocene (ca. 10 ka) climate change transition. Ecological niche models (ENMs) were developed to estimate the current, mid-Holocene, and Last Glacial Maximum distributions of these three bat species and to assess whether suitable climatic habitat for these taxa had been stable across time in the Caribbean. Additionally, we examined the importance of karst formations (where hot caves typically form) as a predictor for the distributions of Caribbean mormoopid bats. Our results show that mormoopid bat distributions in the Caribbean have remained relatively stable over time with climate ENMs indicating up to a 19% expansion in the amount of suitable habitat from late Pleistocene to the present. Presence of karst was a good predictor when used alone or when combined as karst-climate ENMs. Fossil evidence shows that some populations of mormoopids became extirpated as recently as 3.6 ka. These data, taken together with our conclusion that suitable climate habitat for mormoopid bats existed in the Caribbean beyond late Pleistocene to Holocene transition, suggest that these bats may have survived this climate change event by roosting outside their characteristic hot cave environment

The bat community of Haiti and evidence for its long-term persistence at high elevations

<div><p>Accurate accounts of both living and fossil mammal communities are critical for creating biodiversity inventories and understanding patterns of changing species diversity through time. We combined data from from14 new fossil localities with literature accounts and museum records to document the bat biodiversity of Haiti through time. We also report an assemblage of late-Holocene (1600–600 Cal BP) bat fossils from a montane cave (Trouing Jean Paul, ~1825m) in southern Haiti. The nearly 3000 chiropteran fossils from Trouing Jean Paul represent 15 species of bats including nine species endemic to the Caribbean islands. The fossil bat assemblage from Trouing Jean Paul is dominated by species still found on Hispaniola (15 of 15 species), much as with the fossil bird assemblage from the same locality (22 of 23 species). Thus, both groups of volant vertebrates demonstrate long-term resilience, at least at high elevations, to the past 16 centuries of human presence on the island.</p></div

Map of Haiti indicating localities of living bat species (squares) and fossil bat species (circles).

<p>Boundaries of Parc National Pic Macaya and Parc National La Visite are indicated with light gray polygons. The locality of Trouing Jean Paul is indicated by a triangle (23) within Parc Nacional La Visite. Inset map shows detail of localities in the Province of Nippes. Numbers refer to the specific localities listed in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0178066#pone.0178066.s001" target="_blank">S1 Table</a>.</p

Fossil crania, humeri, and dentary of bats from Trouing Jean Paul, Haiti.

<p>Crania shown as dorsal (top), lateral (middle), and ventral (bottom) views. Left to right: Phyllostomidae—<i>Phyllops falcatus</i> (A; UF281804), Mormoopidae—<i>Pteronotus parnellii</i> (B; UF282717), <i>Pteronotus quadridens</i> (D, humerus; UF 297866), Molossidae—<i>Nyctinomops macrotis</i> (C, humerus; UF 297865, and Natalidae—<i>Chilonatalus micropus</i> (E, dentary; UF 282987).</p

Accelerator Mass Spectrometer (AMS) radiocarbon (¹⁴C) dates obtained from bones in superficial deposits at Trouing Jean Paul, Parc National La Visite, Massif de la Selle, Haiti.

<p>Accelerator Mass Spectrometer (AMS) radiocarbon (¹⁴C) dates obtained from bones in superficial deposits at Trouing Jean Paul, Parc National La Visite, Massif de la Selle, Haiti.</p