Spatial modelling of soil microorganisms - Heidi Mod
Channel: Modelling in Ecology and Evolution
Date: 2022-02-19

Keynote by Heidi Mod (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7800-2688), lecturer at University of Helsinki, Finland, on the 25 Jan 2022

Abstract:
Species distribution models (SDMs) have been developed and traditionally applied to predict occurrence probabilities or richness of above-ground species. Recently, there has been attempts to adapt SDM-methodology to microorganisms to understand and forecast their current and future distributions. There are, however, two types of considerations to be made when applying SDMs to DNA-based data. Firstly, the ecologically meaningful environmental drivers of microorganisms must be identified and data on these predictors must be acquired at suitable spatial and temporal scales (possibly including future scenarios). Secondly, technical adaptations in the models must be made in order to account, for example, relative abundances of OTUS. In this talk, I walk through the SDM-pipeline, from environmental data acquisition to future forecasts, highlighting the steps and future insights, that require special attention when modelling DNA-based data in comparison to species occurrences.