kuenm

kuenm facilitates development and calibration of ecological niche models (ENMs) using Maxent for species distribution modeling and extrapolation risk assessment.

Key Features:

• Detailed Model Calibration: Implements calibration workflows that select optimal parameters based on statistical significance, predictive power, and model complexity.
• Model Creation and Evaluation: Generates final models from multiple parameter sets and enables model transfers for projection to other scenarios.
• Extrapolation Risk Analysis: Evaluates extrapolation risk in model transfers using the mobility-oriented parity (MOP) metric and the MESS (Minimum Estimated Sample Size) metric to assess strict-extrapolation risks.
• Reproducibility and Efficiency: Integrates with R and Maxent to enable reproducible model calibration and evaluation and to accelerate calibration and transfers across scenarios.

Scientific Applications:

• Biodiversity Conservation: Predicts species distributions under various environmental conditions to inform conservation planning.
• Climate Change Impact Studies: Assesses potential impacts of climate change on species habitats by evaluating extrapolation risks during model transfers.
• Ecological Research: Supports development of niche models for studying ecological dynamics and species interactions.

Methodology:

Performs systematic model calibration, selection, and evaluation with parameter optimization based on statistical significance, predictive power, and model complexity; creates final models from multiple parameter sets and conducts model transfers; evaluates extrapolation risk using MOP and MESS; implemented in R and interfacing with Maxent.