dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaImproving ecological niche models by data mining large environmental datasets for surrogate models
| Authors | David R. B. Stockwell |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | q-bio/0511046 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0511046 |
Abstract
WhyWhere is a new ecological niche modeling (ENM) algorithm for mapping and explaining the distribution of species. The algorithm uses image processing methods to efficiently sift through large amounts of data to find the few variables that best predict species occurrence. The purpose of this paper is to describe and justify the main parameterizations and to show preliminary success at rapidly providing accurate, scalable, and simple ENMs. Preliminary results for 6 species of plants and animals in different regions indicate a significant (p<0.01) 14% increase in accuracy over the GARP algorithm using models with few, typically two, variables. The increase is attributed to access to additional data, particularly monthly vs. annual climate averages. WhyWhere is also 6 times faster than GARP on large data sets. A data mining based approach with transparent access to remote data archives is a new paradigm for ENM, particularly suited to finding correlates in large databases of fine resolution surfaces. Software for WhyWhere is freely available, both as a service and in a desktop downloadable form from the web site http://biodi.sdsc.edu/ww_home.html.
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"abstract": "WhyWhere is a new ecological niche modeling (ENM) algorithm for mapping and\nexplaining the distribution of species. The algorithm uses image processing\nmethods to efficiently sift through large amounts of data to find the few\nvariables that best predict species occurrence. The purpose of this paper is to\ndescribe and justify the main parameterizations and to show preliminary success\nat rapidly providing accurate, scalable, and simple ENMs. Preliminary results\nfor 6 species of plants and animals in different regions indicate a significant\n(p\u003c0.01) 14% increase in accuracy over the GARP algorithm using models with\nfew, typically two, variables. The increase is attributed to access to\nadditional data, particularly monthly vs. annual climate averages. WhyWhere is\nalso 6 times faster than GARP on large data sets. A data mining based approach\nwith transparent access to remote data archives is a new paradigm for ENM,\nparticularly suited to finding correlates in large databases of fine resolution\nsurfaces. Software for WhyWhere is freely available, both as a service and in a\ndesktop downloadable form from the web site http://biodi.sdsc.edu/ww_home.html.",
"arxiv_id": "q-bio/0511046",
"authors": [
"David R. B. Stockwell"
],
"categories": [
"q-bio.QM",
"cs.AI"
],
"title": "Improving ecological niche models by data mining large environmental datasets for surrogate models",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/q-bio/0511046"
},
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