Description
Species distribution models (SDMs), sometimes referred to as ecological niche or habitat suitability models, are a commonly used analytical technique to link known species locations with environmental predictor variables and assess patterns of species occurrence and habitat suitability. SDMs have been successfully used to model the distributions of various species, from butterflies to baleen whales, with a goal of using associations with habitat variables — such as elevation, vegetation greenness, or distance to human settlements — to map the potential distribution to a species across a landscape or seascape.
To implement SDMs, we will fit models using Google Earth Engine (GEE), a cloud-based spatial analysis platform that can simplify the process of accessing and analyzing huge quantities of remotely sensed data.
This course begins by introducing key SDM concepts for participants working in ecology, conservation, or wildlife biology. The course then provides a basic introduction to Google Earth Engine (GEE) and JavaScript coding, before moving on to spatial data manipulation and example workflows for species distribution mapping in GEE.
Participants need no prior experience working with GEE, but we assume participants have a basic understanding of GIS data and concepts, such as rasters (including stacks or multi-band images), vectors, projections, and spatial resolution.