ADVANCED COURSE: ECOLOGICAL NICHE MODELLING FROM THEORY TO PRACTICE
Ecological niche models (ENM) or species distribution models (SDM) are a series of computer algorithms designed to predict the distribution of species in geographic space based on a mathematical representation of their distribution in the environmental space. These state of the art tools are frequently used in different biological disciplines such as biogeography, ecology, evolutionary biology or conservation. The aims of this course are to provide (1) an overview of the theoretical aspects, applications and techniques of ENM, and (2) a series of practical cases exemplifying relevant scientific uses of ENM.
PROGRAMME
Day 1
Morning
Presentation of instructors and participants.
1.1 Overview of the program. What is the niche?
1.2 The Ideal Ecological Niche Model
1.3 - Which data? Data sources for observations and explanatory variables.
Afternoon
1.4 Practical session - Intro to R and QGIS
Day 2
Morning
2.1 Diversity of algorithms - Presence/absence
2.2 Diversity of algorithms - Presence-only
2.3. Diversity of algorithms - Presence-background
Afternoon
2.4. Practice - Exercises with example or own data. Running GLM, BIOCLIM and Maxent models.
Day 3
Morning
3.1 - Model Performance - Diversity of metrics
3.2 - Model comparison - Null hypothesis testing
Afternoon
3.3 – Practice – performance of models / niche comparison tests
Day 4
Morning
4.1 - Projection in time (past, future)
4.2. - Projection in space
Afternoon
4.3 – Practice – projections in time using Multimodelling platforms
Day 5
Morning
Students presentations. Other topics and questions.
COURSE INSTRUCTORS
Fernando Martínez-Freiría - CIBIO-InBIO | BIODESERTS
Pedro Tarroso - CIBIO-InBIO | BIODESERTS
A. Marcia Barbosa - Universidade de Évora, Portugal
INTENDED AUDIENCE
The course will be open to a maximum number of 20 participants.
75% of available student slots are reserved for BIODIV students. Priority will be given to:
• 1st year and other PhD students attending the BIODIV Doctoral Program;
• PhD students attending other courses;
• Other post-graduate students and researchers.
REGISTRATION
Registration deadline: December 13, 2018
To apply, please fill the form available HERE
Participation is free of charge for BIODIV students | 95 € (students) | 200 € (other participants). CIBIO-InBIO members will have an additional discount of 20%. All applicants will be notified about whether they are accepted until December 21, 2018.
Please note that new rules apply for all BIODIV students.
