Question

To estimate the potential distribution of a species, several kinds of information are needed. Name and describe the two main types of data required to model a species’ distribution.

Answer 1

The two main types of data required to model a species distribution is species data and environment data.Species data,which are the coordinates of the locations where the species of interests occurs.Data about where species have been observed are collected and stored by many different providers.Data collections can come from museum records,large research surveys,or citizen science initiatives such as annual bird counts.There are an increasing number of resources online where such data is collated, and where you can visualise or download an occurence dataset of a particular species.

The environment data describe the environmental conditions of those locations.It describes the conditions of the locations where a species is present or absent .The most common types of environmental variables that are used in species distribution modelling are described by four classes of physical conditions called the primary environmental regimes :moisture,thermal,radiation and mineral nutrients. The moisture regime is mostly described by measures of rainfall and evaporation,the thermal regime by temperature measures.The radiation regime refers to solar radiation or sunlight, which is usually measured by the photosynthetically active radiation,or PAR.