Description

Species distribution models (SDMs) play a critical role in biodiversity, conservation, and understanding the potential impacts to ecosystems under changing climate conditions. SDMs contextualize future scenarios based on known or projected ecological parameters and are the cornerstone for adaptive management planning around short- and long-term changes to complex landscapes. This training, led by NASA's Applied Remote Sensing Training (ARSET) program, provides an overview of SDMs, shows how to use remote sensing data for landscape characterization, and highlights multiple Applied Sciences projects that have developed tools for conducting SDMs for a variety of ecosystems. This includes a special session on the Wallace R-based platform for modeling of species niches and distributions. Participants are provided with demonstrations and additional resources for using these tools for their own species modeling applications.

Prerequisites

• Fundamentals of Remote Sensing

Objectives

By the end of this training, attendees will be able to: 

• Outline the uses of SDMs
• Recall the data inputs and model framework of SDMs
• Distinguish the benefits and limitations of SDMs
• Execute the R-based Wallace code for SDMs
• Summarize and access multiple SDM tools

Target Audience

This training is for local, regional, state, federal, and non-governmental organizations involved in conservation, biodiversity, species modeling, and coastal and ocean processes.

Course Format

• Three 1.5-hour parts

Sessions

Part 1: Overview of SDMs

Part 1 covers:

• Introduction to SDMs
• Species data
• Remote sensing of predictor variables
• Model development
• Pros/Cons and summary
• Q&A

Materials

• Part 1 Presentation Slides (PDF, 24.6 MB)
• Part 1 Q&A Transcript (PDF, 0.1 MB)

Part 2: Using Wallace to Model Species Niches and Distributions

Part 2 covers:

• Introduction to SDMs in Wallace
• Wallace Walkthrough: Running a full SDM workflow
• SDM Extensions: SDM comparisons and post-processing for conservation decision-making and beyond
• Summary
• Q&A

Materials

• Part 2 Presentation Slides (PDF, 12.7 MB)
• Part 2 Q&A Transcript (PDF, 0.09 MB)

Optional for Part 2: There is a demonstration of species distribution models in Wallace, an ecological modeling application. If you wish to follow along with this demo, before beginning Part 2 please follow these instructions for downloading and installing Wallace. 

• Wallace v1.1.0 Instructions for Installation (PDF, 0.1 MB)

Part 3: Additional SDM Tools and Techniques, ASP Projects, and Summary

Part 3 covers:

• Mapping Application for Penguin Populations and Projected Dynamics (MAPPPD)
• Wildlife Insights
• Map of Life
• Circuitscape
• Fisheries and Climate Toolkit (FaCeT)
• Summary/Wrap Up
• Q&A

Materials

• Part 3 Presentation Slides (PDF, 24.9 MB)
• Part 3 Q&A Transcript (PDF, 0.1 MB)

Homework

• Homework (Due Sept. 2, 2021)