IUCN / SSC Cat Specialist Group - Digital Cat Library |
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| Rondinini, C.; Boitani, L. | |
| Mind the map: trips and pitfalls in making and reading maps of carnivore distribution | |
| 2012 Book Chapter | |
A wide range of theoretical and applied analyses in animal ecology, biogeography, and conservation biology involve the production or use of maps of species' distributions. These include studies from individual (home range) to population (regional) level, to continental and global level. The reasons for producing maps of distributions vary from assessing the structural connectivity of landscapes, to predicting the spread of invasive species, to detecting zones of transition among faunal assemblages, to identifying conservation priority sites that maximize the return on investment of conservation money globally. It comes, therefore, as no surprise that the number of species' distribution maps produced at various scales grows. Species' distributions are dynamic over time. Individuals live in different places at different times and, therefore, in theory, an appropriate distribution model is a probability density function across the study region. But because individual homeranges shift, contract, expand, local populations go extinct, new sites are colonized, and habitat is converted by humans, the form of the probability density function would slowly but continuously change. Therefore, any map of a species' distribution is necessarily an abstract and simplified representation of a complex reality. Any map is a model, with its specific assumptions, approximations and errors. Because the availability of modeling tools to develop species' distribution maps is continuously increasing, processes from very fine to broad scale are relevant to the interpretation of modern maps. |
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