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Influence of grain size on species–habitat models

Author

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  • Gottschalk, Thomas K.
  • Aue, Birgit
  • Hotes, Stefan
  • Ekschmitt, Klemens

Abstract

High resolution remote sensing data facilitate the use of small-scale habitat features such as trees or hedges in the analysis of species–habitat relationships. Such data potentially enable more accurate species–habitat mapping than lower resolution data. Here, for the first time, we systematically investigated this hypothesis by altering the spatial resolution from 1m up to 1000m grain size in species–habitat models of 13 bird species. The study area covered the Nidda river catchment in central Germany, a large heterogeneous landscape of 1620km2. A high resolution habitat map of the area was converted to coarser spatial and thematic resolutions in seven steps. We investigated how model performance responded to grain size, and we compared the differential effects of spatial resolution and thematic resolution on model performance. Explained deviance (D2) of the bird models generally decreased with coarser spatial resolution of the data, although it did not decrease monotonically in all species. On average across all species, model D2 decreased from 41.5 at 1m grain size to 15.9 at 1000m grain size. Ten species were best modelled at 1m, two species at 3m and one species at 32m grain size. Model performance degraded continuously with increasing grain size, both in habitat generalist and habitat specialist bird species, and was systematically lower in habitat generalists. The higher model performance observed at finer grain sizes was most likely caused by the combination of three factors: (1) high spatial accuracy of bird records and (2) a more precise location and delineation of habitat features and, (3) to a lesser degree, by more habitat types differentiated in maps of finer resolution. We conclude that higher spatial and thematic resolution data can be essential for deriving accurate predictions on bird distribution patterns from species–habitat models. Especially for bird species that are sensitive to specific land-use types or to small-scaled habitat features, a grain size of 1–3m seems most promising.

Suggested Citation

  • Gottschalk, Thomas K. & Aue, Birgit & Hotes, Stefan & Ekschmitt, Klemens, 2011. "Influence of grain size on species–habitat models," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 222(18), pages 3403-3412.
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:222:y:2011:i:18:p:3403-3412
    DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2011.07.008
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    Cited by:

    1. Abdulwahab, Umarfarooq A. & Hammill, Edd & Hawkins, Charles P., 2022. "Choice of climate data affects the performance and interpretation of species distribution models," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 471(C).
    2. Van Eupen, Camille & Maes, Dirk & Herremans, Marc & Swinnen, Kristijn R.R. & Somers, Ben & Luca, Stijn, 2021. "The impact of data quality filtering of opportunistic citizen science data on species distribution model performance," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 444(C).
    3. Song, Wonkyong & Kim, Eunyoung & Lee, Dongkun & Lee, Moungjin & Jeon, Seong-Woo, 2013. "The sensitivity of species distribution modeling to scale differences," Ecological Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 248(C), pages 113-118.
    4. Syed Amir Manzoor & Aisha Malik & Muhammad Zubair & Geoffrey Griffiths & Martin Lukac, 2019. "Linking Social Perception and Provision of Ecosystem Services in a Sprawling Urban Landscape: A Case Study of Multan, Pakistan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(3), pages 1-15, January.

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