Do we need land‐cover data to model species distributions in Europe?

摘要: Aim  To assess the influence of land cover and climate on species distributions across Europe. quantify importance to describe predict after using as main driver. Location  The study area is Europe. Methods  (1) A multivariate analysis was applied land-cover distribution Europe if determined by at large spatial scales. (2) evaluate distributions, we implemented a spatially explicit iterative procedure plants (2603 species), mammals (186 breeding birds (440 amphibian reptiles (143 species). First, ran bioclimatic models stepwise generalized additive variables. Secondly, carried out regression (LC) variables against residuals from select most relevant LC Finally, produced mixed including climatic those selected decreasing residual models. Then compared explanatory predictive power pure model. Results  At European coarse resolution, mainly driven climate. Two axes representing gradient temperature precipitation explained variation distribution. inclusion improved significantly groups were not or poorly However, model in selection process. Main conclusion  Climate major driver both over Yet, that are weakly associated with (inland water, sea arable land) interesting particular mammal, bird tree distributions. addition does improve their accuracy.