- February 15, 2024–$date.format('MMMM d, yyyy',$event.endDate)
To predict species' geographic distributions, powerful statistical and machine-learning tools known as species distribution models (SDMs) have been developed. For decades, these tools have been used in conservation, epidemiology, food security, policy planning, and many other applications. With their wide acceptance, SDMs have promoted the successful identification and use of environmental predictors to predict species distributions across space and time at incredible accuracy. Yet, the Anthropocene denotes that humans have an increasing influence on life around the globe, but a similar effort to identify and use key human (anthropogenic) predictors in SDMs is severely lacking. Here, I present the state of research in modeling species distributions in a human-dominated world. I share some surprising gaps and some thought-provoking ideas for advancing ecological theory and methods in the Anthropocene.
Veronica Frans is a Ph.D. Student at Michigan State University in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife
