A New Mechanism for Science-Policy Transfer and Biodiversity Governance?

This is the publisher's version, which the author has permission to share. The original published version may be found at: dx.doi.org/10.1017/S037689291000022

Interpretation of models of fundamental ecological niches and species' distributional areas

Estimation of the dimensions of fundamental ecological niches of species to predict their geographic distributions is increasingly being attempted in systematics, ecology, conservation, public health, etc. This technique is often (of necessity) based on data comprising records of presences only. In recent years, modeling approaches have been devised to estimate these interrelated expressions of a species’ ecology, distributional biology, and evolutionary history—nevertheless, a formal basis in ecological and evolutionary theory has largely been lacking. In this paper, we outline such a formal basis to clarify the use of techniques applied to the challenge of estimating ‘ecological niches;’ we analyze example situations that can be modeled using these techniques, and clarify interpretation of results

Biodiversity Informatics for Public Policy. The case of CONABIO in Mexico

In this work I present an overview of the development of the system of biodiversity information that was developed for the federal government of Mexico. I describe briefly the organization that made the system possible and some of its history. Then I focus on the principles of design of the information system, and a few of its major uses. I provide data on costs and usage, and finish reflecting on the institutional fragility of such systems

The Relationship Between Use and Suitability of Resources and Its Consequences to Insect Population Size

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from www.jstor.org.No abstract is available for this item

Biodiversity Informatics for Public Policy. The case of CONABIO in Mexico

In this work I present an overview of the development of the system of biodiversity information that was developed for the federal government of Mexico. I describe briefly the organization that made the system possible and some of its history. Then I focus on the principles of design of the information system, and a few of its major uses. I provide data on costs and usage, and finish reflecting on the institutional fragility of such systems

A Grinnellian Niche Perspective on Species-Area Relationships

In this work, Grinnellian niche theory (a body of theory about geographic distributions of species in terms of noninteracting niche variables) is used to demonstrate that species-area relationships emerge with both size of environmental space and size of geographic area. As environmental space increases, more species’ fundamental niches are included, thus increasing the number of species capable of living in the corresponding region. This idea is made operational by proposing a size measure for multidimensional environmental space and approximating fundamental niches with minimum volume ellipsoids. This framework allows estimating a presence-absence matrix based on the distribution of fundamental niches in environmental space, from which many biodiversity measures can be calculated, such as beta diversity. I establish that Whittaker’s equation for beta diversity is equivalent to MacArthur’s formula relating species numbers and niche breadth; this latter equation provides a mechanism for the species–niche space relationship. I illustrate the theoretical results via exploration of niches of the terrestrial mammals of North America (north of Panama). Each world region has a unique structure of its environmental space, and the position of fundamental niches in niche space is different for different clades; therefore, species-area relationships depend on the clades involved and the region of focus, mostly as a function of MacArthur’s niche beta diversity. Analyzing species-area relationships from the perspective of niche position in environmental space is novel, shifting emphasis from demographic processes to historical, geographic, and climatic factors; moreover, the Grinnellian approach is based on available data and is computationally feasible

Mechanistic and Correlative Models of Ecological Niches

The suite of factors that drives where and under what conditions a species occurs has become the focus of intense research interest. Three general categories of methods have emerged by which researchers address questions in this area: mechanistic models of species’ requirements in terms of environmental conditions that are based on first principles of biophysics and physiology, correlational models based on environmental associations derived from analyses of geographic occurrences of species, and process-based simulations that estimate occupied distributional areas and associated environments from assumptions about niche dimensions and dispersal abilities. We review strengths and weaknesses of these sets of approaches, and identify significant advantages and disadvantages of each. Rather than identifying one or the other as ‘better,’ we suggest that researchers take great care to use the method best-suited to each specific research question, and be conscious of the weaknesses of any method, such that inappropriate interpretations are avoided

Integrating fundamental concepts of ecology, biogeography, and sampling into effective ecological niche modeling and species distribution modeling

Correlative techniques for estimating environmental requirements of species – variably termed ecological niche modeling or species distribution modeling – are becoming very popular tools for ecologists and biogeographers in understanding diverse aspects of biodiversity. These tools, however, are frequently applied in ways that do not fit well into knowledge frameworks in population ecology and biogeography, or into the realities of sampling biodiversity over real-world landscapes. We offer 10 “fixes” – adjustments to typical methodologies that will take into account population ecological and biogeographic frameworks to produce better models.We thank the University of Kansas Niche Modeling Group (past and present) for rich discussions and debates on many of the topics treated in this contribution. Funding was provided by Microsoft Research

Ecological niche shifts and environmental space anisotropy: a cautionary note

This is the publisher's version, which the author has permission to share. The original version may be found at the following link: http://www.scielo.org.mxscielo.php?script=sci_home&lng=es&nrm=isoThe anisotropic structure of climatic space may cause significant (and to a large extent unappreciated) nonevolutionary niche shifts. This can be seen mostly in the context of spatial transferability of ecological niche models. We explore this effect using a virtual species in the United States. We created a simple virtual species by postulating its fundamental niche as an ellipse in a two-dimensional realistic climatic space. The climatic combinations defined by the ellipse were projected in the geography of the United States and 2 regions of equal area were selected. The structure of niche in the 2 areas is compared. It is shown that the 2 regions have differently positioned subsets of the environmental space, which creates “shifts” in the realized niches despite the fact that no evolution and no biotic interactions are present. The most parsimonious hypothesis when ecological niche modeling reveals shifts in the realized niche is that environmental space is heterogeneous. Without considering differences in the structure of environmental space no speculation about niche evolution or the role of competitors should be attempted

Participation in the convention on migratory species: A biogeographic assessment

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.The Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) is a Multilateral Environmental Agreement (MEA) focused on species that regularly travel across international borders. Despite covering an important group of species, CMS is under-utilized compared to other conservation-focused MEAs. CMS suffers from a lack of participation across North America and most of Asia. Our goal is to illustrate differences in species richness and average range-size across signatory and nonsignatory nation-states using range–diversity plots. We also show differences in the cost of CMS membership relative to species patterns to highlight which countries may be discouraged from becoming CMS signatories. Despite containing many CMS species, large economies such as the United States, Russia, and China are not members of the convention. To facilitate migratory species conservation into the future, CMS should seek to fill gaps in participation, potentially directing recruitment efforts toward nonsignatory states that would receive the largest benefit at the lowest relative cost.National Science Foundation C-CHANGE Integrative Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (Grant Number 0801522)Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department of the University of KansasBiodiversity Institute Panorama Gran