Bernard du Bus de Gisignies

Species distribution models (SDM) are widely applied to understand changing species geographical distribution and abundance patterns. However, existing SDM tools are inherently static and inadequate for modelling species distributions that are driven by dynamic environmental conditions.dynamicSDM provides novel tools that explicitly consider the temporal dimension at key SDM stages, including functions for: (a) Cleaning and filtering species occurrence records by spatial and temporal qualities; (b) Generating pseudo‐absence records through space and time; (c) Extracting spatiotemporally buffered explanatory variables; (d) Fitting SDMs whilst accounting for temporal biases and autocorrelation and (e) Projecting intra‐ and inter‐ annual geographical distributions and abundances at high spatiotemporal resolution.Package functions have been designed to be: flexible for targeting specific study species; compatible with other SDM tools; and, by utilising Google Earth Engine and Google Drive, to have low computing power and storage needs. We illustrate dynamicSDM functions with an example of a nomadic bird in southern Africa, the red‐billed quelea Quelea quelea.As dynamicSDM functions are flexible and easily applied, we suggest that these tools could be readily applied to other taxa and systems globally.

Climate change is one of the most serious threats to global crops production at present and it will continue to be the largest threat in the future worldwide. Knowing how climate change affects crop productivity might help sustainability and crop improvement efforts. Under existing and projected climate change scenarios (2050s and 2070s in Ethiopia), the effect of global warming on the distribution of V. radiata and V. unguiculata was investigated. MaxEnt models were used to predict the current and future distribution pattern changes of these crops in Ethiopia using different climate change scenarios (i.e., lowest (RCP 2.6), moderate (RCP 4.5), and extreme (RCP 8.5)) for the years 2050s and 2070s. The study includes 81 and 68 occurrence points for V. radiata and V. unguiculata, respectively, along with 22 environmental variables. The suitability maps indicate that the Beneshangul Gumuz, Oromia, Amhara, SNNPR, and Tigray regions are the major Ethiopian regions with the potential to produce V. radiata, while Amhara, Gambella, Oromia, SNNPR, and Tigray are suitable for producing V. unguiculata. The model prediction for V. radiata habitat ranges distribution in Ethiopia indicated that 1.69%, 4.27%, 11.25% and 82.79% are estimated to be highly suitable, moderately suitable, less suitable, and unsuitable, respectively. On the other hand, the distribution of V. unguiculata is predicted to have 1.27%, 3.07%, 5.22%, and 90.44% habitat ranges that are highly suitable, moderately suitable, less suitable, and unsuitable, respectively, under the current climate change scenario by the year (2050s and 2070s) in Ethiopia. Among the environmental variables, precipitation of the wettest quarter (Bio16), solar radiation index (SRI), temperature seasonality (Bio4), and precipitation seasonality (Bio15) are discovered to be the most effective factors for defining habitat suitability for V. radiata, while precipitation of the wettest quarter (Bio16), temperature annual range (Bio7) and precipitation of the driest quarter (Bio17) found to be better habitat suitability indicator for V. unguiculata in Ethiopia. The result indicates that these variables were more relevant in predicting suitable habitat for these crops in Ethiopia. A future projection predicts that the suitable distribution region will become increasingly fragmented. In general, the study provides a scientific basis of suitable agro-ecological habitat for V. radiata and V. unguiculata for long-term crop management and production improvement in Ethiopia. Therefore, projections of current and future climate change impacts on such crops are vital to reduce the risk of crop failure and to identify the potential productive areas in the country.

The Squirrel Cuckoo ( Piaya cayana ) is a widely distributed neotropical species with 14 recognized subspecies. Two parapatric subspecies are distributed in Mexico. P. c. mexicana is endemic to the seasonally dry tropical forests of western Mexico, and P. c. thermophila is found in humid forests from eastern Mexico to western Colombia. The 2 taxa have a small area of overlap on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, but there is pronounced phenotypic differentiation, and very few reported intermediate individuals between these forms, leading to debate about the taxonomic status of the Mesoamerican taxa. Based on two mitochondrial genes, we used phylogenetic, phylogeographic, morphological, and ecological modelling analyses to describe the evolutionary relationships and paleo-distributional patterns of P. cayana in Mexico. Divergence time estimates suggest that the split between P. c. mexicana and P. c. thermophila occurred during the Pleistocene, about 1.24 Mya. Morphometrics of Mexican subspecies indicate that tail length and the white tail tips are significantly longer in P. c. mexicana , while P. c. thermophila has a longer and wider bill. Ecological niche analyses indicated that niche similarity between both lineages was lower than expected by chance, while low values on cross-prediction tests suggested that the two lineages have inhabited different environmental spaces since at least the Late Pleistocene. The ecological niche difference may also be associated with a steep humidity gradient, suggesting a significant contemporary environmental barrier. Overall, our results indicate that P. c. mexicana and P. c. thermophila have divergent evolutionary histories; therefore, the current taxonomic status of the Piaya populations in Mexico reflects neither their evolutionary relationships nor their apparent divergence. Our results suggest a major split in the polytypic P. cayana coinciding with the Andes, suggesting that the western endemic P. c. mexicana and P. c. thermophila are best treated as separate species-level taxa . Die Rolle ökologischer und geografischer Faktoren bei der Abstammung und Diversifikation des Eichhornkuckucks Piaya cayana in Mexiko: von der mitochondrialen DNA her betrachtet Der Eichhornkuckuck ( Piaya cayana ) ist eine weit verbreitete neotropische Art mit 14 anerkannten Unterarten. In Mexiko gibt es zwei parapatrische Unterarten. P. c. mexicana ist in den je nach Jahreszeit trockenen tropischen Wäldern Westmexikos beheimatet, während P. c. thermophila in den feuchten Wäldern von Ostmexiko bis Westkolumbien vorkommt. Die beiden Taxa überschneiden sich in einem kleinen Gebiet an der Landenge von Tehuantepec, aber es gibt einen ausgeprägten phänotypischen Unterschied und nur sehr wenige bekannte Mischtypen zwischen den beiden und damit Anlass zu Diskussionen über den taxonomischen Status dieser mittelamerikanischen Taxa. Auf der Grundlage zweier mitochondrialer Gene haben wir phylogenetische, phylogeografische, morphologische und ökologische Modell-Analysen durchgeführt, um die abstammungsbiologischen Verbindungen und Verbreitungsmuster von P. cayana im Paläozän in Mexiko zu bestimmen. Schätzungen der Entstehungszeit der Unterschiede deuten darauf hin, dass die Trennung zwischen P. c. mexicana und P. c. thermophila während des Pleistozäns stattfand, vor etwa 1,24 Millionen Jahren. Die morphometrischen Daten der mexikanischen Unterarten zeigen, dass die Schwanzlänge und die weißen Schwanzspitzen bei P. c. mexicana deutlich länger sind, während P. c. thermophila einen längeren und breiteren Schnabel hat. Analysen der ökologischen Nischen zeigten, dass die Übereinstimmungen zwischen den beiden Linien geringer waren als durch Zufall zu erwarten wäre, während niedrige Werte bei Kreuz-Vorhersagetests darauf hindeuteten, dass die beiden Linien mindestens seit dem späten Pleistozän in unterschiedlichen Lebensräumen gelebt haben müssen. Der ökologische Nischenunterschied kann auch mit dem starken Feuchtigkeitsgradienten zusammenhängen, was auf eine bedeutende gegenwärtige Umweltbarriere hinweist. Insgesamt deuten unsere Ergebnisse darauf hin, dass P. c. mexicana und P. c. thermophila eine unterschiedliche Entwicklungsgeschichte haben; daher gibt der derzeitige taxonomische Status der Piaya-Populationen in Mexiko weder ihre evolutionäre Verwandtschaft, noch ihre offensichtlichen Unterschiede wieder. Unsere Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass sich der polytypische P. cayana in den Anden aufgespalten hat, was bedeuten könnte, dass die im Westen endemischen P. c. mexicana und P. c. thermophila am besten als separate Taxa auf Artniveau behandelt werden sollten.

Renewable energy is one of the most important sources of energy for a decarbonized future. The use of renewable energy necessitates the thorough study of interlinkages with social issues such as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, there are no high-resolution renewable energy datasets for analyzing interlinkages. The goal of this research is to 1) create a high-resolution geographically explicit renewable energy potential map, 2) evaluate the SDGs nexus using the potential map, 3) discuss the improvement of renewable energy dataset, and 4) discuss nexus issues for implementing renewable energy systems in Japan. Our potential map has the same resolution of 500 m and unit of annual electricity generation on each energy. The occurence of endangered birds was overlapping with the area having a lot of solar energy potential. Local renewable energy is difficult to access on a small spatial scale, especially in urban regions like Tokyo. Our potential map can be used as a database for site selection and area zoning. The findings suggest that implementing decentralized renewable energy systems in today's highly concentrated megacities, such as the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, is extremely challenging, and that this type of centralized-oriented land design is likely to exacerbate the problem of energy poverty.

The ever-increasing human population, globalisation, and desire to keep pets have resulted in the translocation of many species into non-native environments. As a result, some of the non-native reptile species have been introduced to South Africa through the pet trade. However, little is known about…

Brood parasitism is a fascinating natural history phenomenon that provides a window into the coevolution of antagonistic interactions. Many ecological and evolutionary aspects of brood parasitism remain unknown, and new hosts of brood parasites are still being discovered. We document the second inst…

In multiple regression Y ~ β0 + β1X1 + β2X2 + β3X1 X2 + ɛ., the interaction term is quantified as the product of X1 and X2. We developed fractional-power interaction regression (FPIR), using βX1M X2N as the interaction term. The rationale of FPIR is that the slopes of Y-X1 regression along the X2 gr…