Understanding spatial effects in species distribution models

Paradinas, I., Illian, J. and Smout, S. (2023) Understanding spatial effects in species distribution models. PLoS ONE, 18(5), e0285463. (doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0285463) (PMID:37253039)

Abstract

Species Distribution Models often include spatial effects which may improve prediction at unsampled locations and reduce Type I errors when identifying environmental drivers. In some cases ecologists try to ecologically interpret the spatial patterns displayed by the spatial effect. However, spatial autocorrelation may be driven by many different unaccounted drivers, which complicates the ecological interpretation of fitted spatial effects. This study aims to provide a practical demonstration that spatial effects are able to smooth the effect of multiple unaccounted drivers. To do so we use a simulation study that fit model-based spatial models using both geostatistics and 2D smoothing splines. Results show that fitted spatial effects resemble the sum of the unaccounted covariate surface(s) in each model.

• Item Type: Articles
• Additional Information: IP was funded by a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellowship (GAP-847014).
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Paradinas, Dr Iosu and Illian, Professor Janine

Creator Roles

Paradinas, I.: Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Writing – original draft
Illian, J.: Conceptualization, Funding acquisition, Methodology

• Authors: Paradinas, I., Illian, J., and Smout, S.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Mathematics and Statistics; College of Science and Engineering > School of Mathematics and Statistics > Statistics
• Journal Name: PLoS ONE
• Publisher: Public Library of Science
• ISSN: 1932-6203
• ISSN (Online): 1932-6203
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 Paradinas et al.
• First Published: First published in PLoS ONE 18(5): e0285463
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons License

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