A standard protocol for reporting species distribution models

Zurrel, D; Franklin, J; König, C; Yates, KL; Zimmerman, N; Merow, C

Abstract

Species distribution models (SDMs) constitute the most common class of models
across ecology, evolution and conservation. The advent of ready-to-use software pack
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ages and increasing availability of digital geoinformation have considerably assisted
the application of SDMs in the past decade, greatly enabling their broader use for
informing conservation and management, and for quantifying impacts from global
change. However, models must be fit for purpose, with all important aspects of their
development and applications properly considered. Despite the widespread use of
SDMs, standardisation and documentation of modelling protocols remain limited,
which makes it hard to assess whether development steps are appropriate for end use.
To address these issues, we propose a standard protocol for reporting SDMs, with an
emphasis on describing how a study’s objective is achieved through a series of model
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ing decisions. We call this the ODMAP (Overview, Data, Model, Assessment and
Prediction) protocol, as its components reflect the main steps involved in building
SDMs and other empirically-based biodiversity models. The ODMAP protocol serves
two main purposes. First, it provides a checklist for authors, detailing key steps for model building and analyses, and thus represents a quick guide and generic workflow for modern SDMs. Second, it introduces
a structured format for documenting and communicating the models, ensuring transparency and reproducibility, facilitating
peer review and expert evaluation of model quality, as well as meta-analyses. We detail all elements of ODMAP, and explain
how it can be used for different model objectives and applications, and how it complements efforts to store associated metadata
and define modelling standards. We illustrate its utility by revisiting nine previously published case studies, and provide an
interactive web-based application to facilitate its use. We plan to advance ODMAP by encouraging its further refinement and
adoption by the scientific community.

Citation

Zurrel, D., Franklin, J., König, C., Yates, K., Zimmerman, N., & Merow, C. (2020). A standard protocol for reporting species distribution models. Ecography, 43(9), 1261-1277. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.04960

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Apr 30, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Jun 1, 2020
• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2020
• Deposit Date: May 27, 2020
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 2, 2020
• Journal: Ecography
• Print ISSN: 0906-7590
• Electronic ISSN: 1600-0587
• Publisher: Wiley
• Volume: 43
• Issue: 9
• Pages: 1261-1277
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.04960
• Publisher URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.04960
• Related Public URLs: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/toc/16000587/2020/43/5