Species distribution modeling (SDMs) may be one of the most exciting and
hottest topics in current ecological studies. SDMs have been widely employed for
ecologists to evaluate how climate change may drive species to go extinction under
future climate conditions. SDMs are also used to monitor and delineate the cryptic and
newly described species that have little information about their biology and distribution.
Overall, SDMs are powerful tools for conducting biodiversity analyses. In this chapter,
I outlined some of the most commonly used algorithms for conducting SDMs. A
practical example is also provided.
Keywords: Black box issue, climate change, ecological niche analysis, ensemble
species distribution modeling, fundamental niches, geographical information
system, global change, land use, macroecology, model training and test, niche
conservatism hypothesis, realized niches, species distribution, species extinction,
statistical algorithms, statistical ecology.
