Introduction to Ecological Niche Modelling

Do you want to know what is an Ecological Niche Model and how to calculate it? Do you want to use ecological niche models to support a species' description? Or to evaluate niche conservatism inside a taxonomical group? This course will teach you the base theory of ecological niche modelling and its main methodologies. By the end of this 5-day practical course, you will have the capacity to perform ecological niche models and understand their results. You will be able to choose and apply the correct methodology depending in the aim of your study and type of datasets.

This course is orientated to PhD and MSc students, as well as other students and researchers working on biogeography, evolutionary biology, systematists, or related disciplines. Participants will receive a diploma of course attendance, copies of presentations and materials used, one selection of the most relevant articles on Ecological Niche Modelling, and a copy of programs and other tools used in the course.

The course will be mainly practical, with some theoretical lectures. All modelling processes and calculations will be performed with R, the free software environment for statistical computing and graphics (http://www.r-project.org/). Students will learn to use modelling algorithms like Maxent, Bioclim, Domain, and logistic regressions, and R packages for computing ENMs like Dismo and Biomod2. Also, students will learn to compare different ecological niche models with Ecospat package.