Session 1– 02:00:00
Introduction to ENM theory. Definition of ecological niche model; introduction to species ecological niche theory, types of ecological niches, types of ENM, diagram BAM, ENMs as approximations to species’ niches.
Session 2 – 02:00:00
ENM methods. Mechanistic and correlative models. Overlap Analysis, Biomod, Domain, Habitat, Distance of Mahalanobis, ENFA, Maxent, Logistic regression, Generalised Linear Models, Generalised Additive Models, Generalised Boosted Regression Models, Random Forest, Support Vector Machines, Artificial Neural Network.
Session 3 – 02:00:00
Preparing variables and species data. Getting climatic data from WorldClim and species data from the Global Biodiversity Information Facility using the geodatapackage. Choosing environmental data sources, downloading variables, Clipping variables, Aggregating variables, checking pixel size, checking raster limits, checking NoData, Correlating variables.
Session 4- 03:00:00
Guidelines to calculate ENM. Concepts of ecological niche and how they can be modelled; classes of correlative models; modelling software; selection of study area; data sources for species records and environmental variables; types of species records and their influence on correlative models; errors in species records; minimum number of species records and environmental variables; effects of prevalence, sampling design, biases, and collinearity between variables; model calculation; model projection to different scenarios in time and space; ensemble modelling; model validation; classification, discrimination and calibration metrics; calculation of null models; analysis of model results; and model thresholding.
Session 5- 03:00:00
Modelling with the predicts package. Formatting the data, parameterising the modelling correlative algorithms, calculating the models, evaluating the models, projecting the models over time and space.
Session 6 – 03:00:00
Applications of ENM. Ecological niche identification, Identification of contact zones, Integration with genetical data, Species expansions, Species invasions, Dispersion hypotheses, Species conservation status, Prediction of future conservation problems, Projection to future and past climate change scenarios, Modelling past species, Modelling species richness, Road-kills, Diseases, Windmills, Location of protected areas.
Session 7- 03:00:00
Modelling with the biomod2 package. Formatting the data, parameterising the modelling correlative algorithms, calculating the models, evaluating the models, projecting the models over time and space.
Session 8- 03:00:00
Modelling with Maxent. Formatting the data, parameterising Maxent, calculating the models, evaluating the models, projecting the models over time and space.
Session 9- 03:00:00
Compare statistically two different ecological niche models using the R package ecospat.
Session 10- 03:00:00
Run ecological niche models with your own data.
Session 11- 03:00:00
Participants’ talks. Attendees will have the opportunity to present their own data and analyse which is the best way to successfully obtain an ENM.
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