Challenges in identifying sites climatically matched to the native ranges of animal invaders

Product Type: Journal Article

Year: 2011

Author(s): Rodda, G.H., C.S. Jarnevich, and R.N. Reed

Suggested Citation:
Rodda, G.H., C.S. Jarnevich, and R.N. Reed. 2011. Challenges in identifying sites climatically matched to the native ranges of animal invaders. PLoSOne 6(2): 1-18.

Abstract

Species distribution models are often used to characterize a species' native range climate, so as to identify sites elsewhere in the world that may be climatically similar and therefore at risk of invasion by the species. This endeavor provoked intense public controversy over recent attempts to model areas at risk of invasion by the Indian Python (Python molurus). We evaluated a number of MaxEnt models on this species to assess MaxEnt's utility for vertebrate climate matching.