Spatial Predictions of Mojave Desert Tortoise, Sonoran Desert Tortoise and Pooled Species Habitat Suitability for present-day (1950 – 2000 yr)
Dates
Publication Date
2019-06-05
Creation
2018-11-21
Citation
Inman, R.D., and Esque, T.C., 2019, Local ecological niche models, genotype associations and environmental data for desert tortoises: U.S. Geological Survey data release, https://doi.org/10.5066/P91V2S8C.
Summary
This dataset provides spatial predictions of habitat suitability for Gopherus agassizii (Agassiz’s desert tortoise), Gopherus morafkai (Morafka’s desert tortoise) and a pooled-species model under current conditions (1950 – 2000 yr). The raster layers contained here accompany the manuscript Inman et al. 2019 and were used to evaluate subtle ecological niche differences between G. agassizii and G. morafkai, and identify local species-environment relationships. Spatial predictions of habitat suitability were created using MaxEnt version 3.4.0 (Phillips et al., 2006), a widely-used software for SDM in presence-background frameworks. Detailed methods are provided in Inman et al. 2019. Inman et al. 2019. Local niche differences predict [...]
Summary
This dataset provides spatial predictions of habitat suitability for Gopherus agassizii (Agassiz’s desert tortoise), Gopherus morafkai (Morafka’s desert tortoise) and a pooled-species model under current conditions (1950 – 2000 yr). The raster layers contained here accompany the manuscript Inman et al. 2019 and were used to evaluate subtle ecological niche differences between G. agassizii and G. morafkai, and identify local species-environment relationships. Spatial predictions of habitat suitability were created using MaxEnt version 3.4.0 (Phillips et al., 2006), a widely-used software for SDM in presence-background frameworks. Detailed methods are provided in Inman et al. 2019.
Inman et al. 2019. Local niche differences predict genotype associations in sister taxa of desert tortoise. Diversity and Distributions. https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.12927
To investigate spatial congruence between ecological niches and genotype in two allopatric species of desert tortoise that are species of conservation concern. We use SDM and MGWR in a coupled modeling approach to identify differences in the ecological niches of G. agassizii and G. morafkai, and explore spatially varying species-environment relationships in the recent secondary contact zone. We developed a two-step modeling approach drawing on the strengths of both SDM and MGWR to explore spatial patterns in species-environment relationships in G. agassizii and G. morafkai across this secondary contact zone. In the first step, we use SDM to develop range-wide ecological niche models for each species separately and test existing hypotheses that the niches of these two species are more different than would be expected by chance. We then pool both species and develop a single model of their combined ecological niche and treat the mapped residuals from this pooled model as a measure of local deviation. We assume that, if the two species exhibit different ecological niches, residuals from a pooled model will represent how poorly their combined niche predicts habitat at a given location. In the second step, we use MGWR to explore spatial patterns in the relationships between these residuals and hypothesized explanatory variables that may enumerate differences between the two species and their hybrids within the focal study area. While the interpretation of model coefficients for residuals as the response variable is perhaps less intuitive than interpreting those for habitat suitability, residuals offer a local measure of deviation from pooled niches that may illuminate landscape gradients in local niche differences.
