The significance of using satellite imagery data only in Ecological Niche Modelling of Iberian herps

摘要: The environmental data used to calculate ecological niche models (ENM) are obtained mainly from ground-based maps (e.g., climatic interpolated surfaces). These often not available for less developed areas, or may be at an inappro- priate scale, and thus obtain this information requires fieldwork. An alternative source of eco-geographical comes satellite imagery. Three sets ENM were calculated exclusively with variables (1) optical radar images only (2) altitude by methods. compared evaluate whether imagery can accurately generate ENM. comparisons must made in areas well-known species distribu- tion data. Thus, the study area was south-western part Salamanca (Spain), using amphibian reptiles as spe- cies models. Models' discrimination capacity measured ROC plots. covariation a Spatial Spearman correlation. Four modelling tech- niques (Bioclim, Mahalanobis distance, GARP Maxent). results comparison showed that there no significant differences between generated remotely sensed However, built exhibited larger diversity values, probably related higher spatial resolution Satellite produce accurate ENM, independently technique dataset used. There - fore, biogeographical analysis distribution remote