SANBI-GBIF Species Distribution Modelling

Trainers
Sanbigbif eLearning |
Fatima Parker-Allie |

Welcome to the capacity enhancement training workshop on using R for species distribution modelling. This course ties into SANBI-GBIF’s strategy to develop biodiversity informatics skills nationally. Through this course, it is intended to focus on the use and application of data and in this way ensuring that information is relevant and can ultimately be used for improved decision making. The key aim of this workshop is to be focused on the marine community; however, we are open to submissions from stakeholders working in the terrestrial biome.

Course Information

Course Topics

What is species distribution modeling
Data types and sources
Introduction to R
Handling species occurrence data
Incorporating environmental data
Using R to run SMDs
Model evaluation
Conducting model evaluation in R

Course Trainers

Dr. Vernon Visser

Vernon is a research fellow in the Centre for Statistics in Ecology, Environment and Conservation (SEEC). Broadly speaking, he is interested in understanding why species occur where they do, and being able to predict and monitor their past, present and future distributions. This research is important for advancing our understanding of the natural world, but also for very practical purposes in that global climate change, land-use change, and human-assisted dispersal of species are causing unprecedented changes in the extents and distributions of species.