Species versus within-species niches: a multi-modelling approach to assess range size of a spring-dwelling amphibian

Species versus within-species niches: a multi-modelling approach to assess range size of a spring-dwelling amphibian

Authors

Forough Goudarzi, Mahmoud-Reza Hemami, Mansoureh Malekian, Sima Fakheran, Fernando Martínez-Freiría

Scientific reports

Volume

11

Publisher

Nature Publishing Group

Sci Rep. 2021; 11: 597. 

Published online 2021 Jan 12. doi: 10.1038/s41598-020-79783-0

Description

Species Distribution Models (SDMs) can be used to estimate potential geographic ranges and derive indices to assess species conservation status. However, habitat-specialist species require fine-scale range estimates that reflect resource dependency. Furthermore, local adaptation of intraspecific lineages to distinct environmental conditions across ranges have frequently been neglected in SDMs. Here, we propose a multi-stage SDM approach to estimate the distributional range and potential area of occupancy (pAOO) of Neurergus kaiseri, a spring-dwelling amphibian with two climatically-divergent evolutionary lineages. We integrate both broad-scale climatic variables and fine-resolution environmental data to predict the species distribution while examining the performance of lineage-level versus species-level modelling on the estimated pAOO. Predictions of habitat suitability at the landscape scale differed …