Ecological Niche Modelling of Dipterocarp Trees Using Maximum Entropy Methodl

Abstract

A program that would predict the likely distribution of a species over a geographic area have always been a sought for tool in the fi eld of ecology due to the wide variety of applications that it could have or as it is more commonly known, Niche Modelling. The species of interest, Dipterocarps, are medium to large, resinous forest trees belonging to tropical plant family dipterocarpaceae. Being one of the main source of timber in Asia, a suitability tool for dipterocarps would have some economic impact for the Philippines' export industry. For modelling its distribution, maximum entropy approach is used. Environmental variables used were obtained from PAG ASA but since localities are from central visayas mainly only, only the weather stations surrounding the localities are selected.The model produced has an AUC score 99.64% however, it is important we note that the presence data and climate data are based mainly from Central Visayas. For future research purposes, the software produced also includes a function to produce your own model using your own set of environmental variables. The software is using java as its interface and R (with Dismo as the main package) for its backend.