Ecological niches and geographic distributions / A. Townsend Peterson, Jorge Soberón, Richard G. Pearson, Roberto P. Anderson, Enrique Martínez Meyer, Miguel Nakamura, Miguel Bastos Araújo

Bibliografía: páginas 281-314

Glosario: páginas 269-280

Acknowledgments.. 1. Introduction.. Practicalities.. This Volume.. Part I.. THEORY.. 2. Concepts of Niches.. Major Themes in Niche Concepts.. Grinnellian and Eltonian Niches.. Estimating Grinnellian Niches: Practicalities.. Summary.. 3. Niches and Geographic Distributions.. Relations between Environmental and Geographic Spaces.. The Ecological Equations.. The BAM Diagram: A Thinking Framework.. Ecological Niches and Geographic Distributions.. Estimating Geographic Areas and Ecological Niches.. Summary.. Part II.. PRACTICE.. 4. Niches and Distributions in Practice: Overview.. General Principles.. Steps to Building Niche Models.. 5. Species' Occurrence Data.. Types of Occurrence Data.. Occurrence Data Content and Availability.. Summary.. 6. Environmental Data.. Species-Environment Relationships.. Environmental Data for Ecological Niche Modeling.. Environmental Data in Practice.. Summary.. 7. Modeling Ecological Niches.. What Is Being Estimated?.. Modeling Algorithms.. Implementation.. Model Calibration.. Model Complexity and Overfi tting.. Study Region Extent and Resolution Revisited.. Model Extrapolation and Transferability.. Differences among Methods and Selection of "Best" Models.. Characterizing Ecological Niches.. Summary.. 8. From Niches to Distributions.. Potential Distributional Areas.. Nonequilibrium Distributions.. Detecting and Processing Nonequilibrium Distributions.. Summary.. 9: Evaluating Model Performance and Signifi cance.. Presences, Absences, and Errors.. Calibration and Evaluation Datasets.. Overfi tting, Performance, Signifi cance, and Evaluation Space.. Selection of Evaluation Data.. Evaluation of Performance.. Assessing Model Signifi cance.. Future Directions.. Summary

Part III.. APPLICATIONS.. 10. Introduction to Applications.. 11. Discovering Biodiversity.. Discovering Populations.. Discovering Species Limits.. Discovering Unknown Species.. Connection to Theory.. Practical Considerations.. Review of Applications.. Discussion.. 12. Conservation Planning and Climate Change Effects.. Generalities.. Connection to Theory.. Practical Considerations.. Review of Applications.. 13. Species' Invasions.. Connection to Theory.. Practical Considerations.. Review of Applications.. Caveats and Limitations.. Future Directions and Challenges.. 14. The Geography of Disease Transmission.. Connection to Theory.. Practical Considerations.. Review of Applications.. Caveats and Limitations.. Future Directions and Challenges.. 15. Linking Niches with Evolutionary Processes.. Changes in the Available Environment.. Niche Conservatism.. Tests of Conservatism.. Context.. Learning More about Ecological Niche Evolution.. Future Directions and Challenges.. 16. Conclusions.. Appendices.. Appendix A: Glossary of Symbols Used.. Appendix B: Set Theory for G- and E-Space.. Glossary.. Bibliography

This book provides a first synthetic view of an emerging area of ecology and biogeography, linking individual- and population-level processes to geographic distributions and biodiversity patterns. Problems in evolutionary ecology, macroecology, and biogeography are illuminated by this integrative view. The book focuses on correlative approaches known as ecological niche modeling, species distribution modeling, or habitat suitability modeling, which use associations between known occurrences of species and environmental variables to identify environmental conditions under which populations can be maintained. The spatial distribution of environments suitable for the species can then be estimated: a potential distribution for the species. This approach has broad applicability to ecology, evolution, biogeography, and conservation biology, as well as to understanding the geographic potential of invasive species and infectious diseases, and the biological implications of climate change. eng