Modeling the distribution of a wide‐ranging invasive species using the sampling efforts of expert and citizen scientists
Abstract In its invasive range in Australia, the European rabbit threatens the persistence of native flora and fauna and damages agricultural production. Understanding its distribution and ecological niche is critical for developing management plans to reduce populations and avoid further biodiversi...
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doaj-48099e21a44a4513a2da0c7c71f79e092021-03-02T07:49:24ZengWileyEcology and Evolution2045-77582019-10-01919110531106310.1002/ece3.5609Modeling the distribution of a wide‐ranging invasive species using the sampling efforts of expert and citizen scientistsEmilie Roy‐Dufresne0Frédérik Saltré1Brian D. Cooke2Camille Mellin3Greg Mutze4Tarnya Cox5Damien A. Fordham6The Environment Institute and School of Biological Sciences University of Adelaide Adelaide SA AustraliaThe Environment Institute and School of Biological Sciences University of Adelaide Adelaide SA AustraliaInstitute for Applied Ecology University of Canberra Canberra ACT AustraliaThe Environment Institute and School of Biological Sciences University of Adelaide Adelaide SA AustraliaDepartment of Primary Industries and Regions South Australia Biosecurity SA Adelaide SA AustraliaVertebrate Pest Research Unit NSW Department of Primary Industries Orange NSW AustraliaThe Environment Institute and School of Biological Sciences University of Adelaide Adelaide SA AustraliaAbstract In its invasive range in Australia, the European rabbit threatens the persistence of native flora and fauna and damages agricultural production. Understanding its distribution and ecological niche is critical for developing management plans to reduce populations and avoid further biodiversity and economic losses. We developed an ensemble of species distribution models (SDMs) to determine the geographic range limits and habitat suitability of the rabbit in Australia. We examined the advantage of incorporating data collected by citizens (separately and jointly with expert data) and explored issues of spatial biases in occurrence data by implementing different approaches to generate pseudo‐absences. We evaluated the skill of our model using three approaches: cross‐validation, out‐of‐region validation, and evaluation of the covariate response curves according to expert knowledge of rabbit ecology. Combining citizen and expert occurrence data improved model skill based on cross‐validation, spatially reproduced important aspects of rabbit ecology, and reduced the need to extrapolate results beyond the studied areas. Our ensemble model projects that rabbits are distributed across approximately two thirds of Australia. Annual maximum temperatures >25°C and annual minimum temperatures >10°C define, respectively, the southern and northern most range limits of its distribution. In the arid and central regions, close access to permanent water (≤~ 0.4 km) and reduced clay soil composition (~20%–50%) were the major factors influencing the probability of occurrence of rabbits. Synthesis and applications. Our results show that citizen science data can play an important role in managing invasive species by providing missing information on occurrences in regions not surveyed by experts because of logistics or financial constraints. The additional sampling effort provided by citizens can improve the capacity of SDMs to capture important elements of a species ecological niche, improving the capacity of statistical models to accurately predict the geographic range of invasive species.https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5609citizen scienceecological niche modelEuropean rabbitinvasion biologymodel transferabilityOryctolagus cuniculus |
collection |
DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Emilie Roy‐Dufresne Frédérik Saltré Brian D. Cooke Camille Mellin Greg Mutze Tarnya Cox Damien A. Fordham |
spellingShingle |
Emilie Roy‐Dufresne Frédérik Saltré Brian D. Cooke Camille Mellin Greg Mutze Tarnya Cox Damien A. Fordham Modeling the distribution of a wide‐ranging invasive species using the sampling efforts of expert and citizen scientists Ecology and Evolution citizen science ecological niche model European rabbit invasion biology model transferability Oryctolagus cuniculus |
author_facet |
Emilie Roy‐Dufresne Frédérik Saltré Brian D. Cooke Camille Mellin Greg Mutze Tarnya Cox Damien A. Fordham |
author_sort |
Emilie Roy‐Dufresne |
title |
Modeling the distribution of a wide‐ranging invasive species using the sampling efforts of expert and citizen scientists |
title_short |
Modeling the distribution of a wide‐ranging invasive species using the sampling efforts of expert and citizen scientists |
title_full |
Modeling the distribution of a wide‐ranging invasive species using the sampling efforts of expert and citizen scientists |
title_fullStr |
Modeling the distribution of a wide‐ranging invasive species using the sampling efforts of expert and citizen scientists |
title_full_unstemmed |
Modeling the distribution of a wide‐ranging invasive species using the sampling efforts of expert and citizen scientists |
title_sort |
modeling the distribution of a wide‐ranging invasive species using the sampling efforts of expert and citizen scientists |
publisher |
Wiley |
series |
Ecology and Evolution |
issn |
2045-7758 |
publishDate |
2019-10-01 |
description |
Abstract In its invasive range in Australia, the European rabbit threatens the persistence of native flora and fauna and damages agricultural production. Understanding its distribution and ecological niche is critical for developing management plans to reduce populations and avoid further biodiversity and economic losses. We developed an ensemble of species distribution models (SDMs) to determine the geographic range limits and habitat suitability of the rabbit in Australia. We examined the advantage of incorporating data collected by citizens (separately and jointly with expert data) and explored issues of spatial biases in occurrence data by implementing different approaches to generate pseudo‐absences. We evaluated the skill of our model using three approaches: cross‐validation, out‐of‐region validation, and evaluation of the covariate response curves according to expert knowledge of rabbit ecology. Combining citizen and expert occurrence data improved model skill based on cross‐validation, spatially reproduced important aspects of rabbit ecology, and reduced the need to extrapolate results beyond the studied areas. Our ensemble model projects that rabbits are distributed across approximately two thirds of Australia. Annual maximum temperatures >25°C and annual minimum temperatures >10°C define, respectively, the southern and northern most range limits of its distribution. In the arid and central regions, close access to permanent water (≤~ 0.4 km) and reduced clay soil composition (~20%–50%) were the major factors influencing the probability of occurrence of rabbits. Synthesis and applications. Our results show that citizen science data can play an important role in managing invasive species by providing missing information on occurrences in regions not surveyed by experts because of logistics or financial constraints. The additional sampling effort provided by citizens can improve the capacity of SDMs to capture important elements of a species ecological niche, improving the capacity of statistical models to accurately predict the geographic range of invasive species. |
topic |
citizen science ecological niche model European rabbit invasion biology model transferability Oryctolagus cuniculus |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.5609 |
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