How do you learn to make a species distribution model? My suggestions:
- Wallace2: This is a point-and-click, user-friendly software package that runs through R that streamlines the modeling process, teaches you how to model and provides references where needed, and even writes the R code in the background so you can study and modify it.
- The Habitat Suitability and Distribution Models: With Applications in R book by Guisan, Thuiller, and Zimmerman.
- The Best Practices in Species Distribution Modeling Workshop, version 2, by myself (Adam Smith).
- This hworksop is the culmination of 7 in-person workshops held at various meetings and universities.
- Version 2 is being updated to work with enmSdmX, an R package we developed for SDMing, but as of March 2024, not all lessons have been updated or tested. Sorry… I’m working on it!
- Right-click the image of the folder that appears and download it–don’t go into the folder and download each file individually.
- Version 1 is archived.
- The free videos on how SDMs work, how they should be interpreted, and how they should be designed in the Center for Plant Conservation’s “Rare Plant Academy“.
- The free videos in the ENM2020 series (a short description is here).
Also of note: A short instructional on flagging occurrence records that may have been collected from or georeferenced to a zoo, botanical garden, store, etc.