DOI: 10.5061/dryad.nk98sf831
title: Data from: Long-term human land-use change throughout Southeast Asia reshapes the distribution of suitable habitat for a human-commensal bird species

description: Aim: Human activity has reshaped ecological communities for thousands of
 years. While these activities have typically led to habitat loss, some
 species have successfully exploited human environments. However, the
 effects of long-term human land-use on the distributions of such species
 are poorly understood. Here, we investigated how land-use change over the
 last 12,000 years has altered the distribution of suitable habitat for a
 widespread human-commensal bird species, the Pacific swallow (Hirundo
 tahitica).  Location: Southeast Asia, Melanesia Methods: We built
 species distribution models using community science records and evaluated
 approaches to controlling for spatial biases that arise from using
 unstructured survey data to model species associated with anthropogenic
 environments. We then assessed the distribution of suitable habitat for
 Pacific swallows under three alternative scenarios of land-use change that
 incorporated only climate variables, only human land-use variables, and
 both variable sets. Lastly, we hindcasted alternative models at 1,000-year
 intervals over the last 12,000 years to evaluate how habitat availability
 has changed due to long-term human activity. Results: Models that included
 climate and human land-use variables were the best fit to occurrence
 records. Standard methods for controlling for spatial bias performed
 poorly compared to fully sampling the environmental background,
 highlighting unique considerations for modeling human-associated species.
 Hindcasting alternative land-use scenarios showed that suitable
 human-altered habitat arose within the Pacific swallow range at least 4000
 years ago and caused significant expansions of suitable habitat over the
 last 2000 years.  Main conclusions: Human land-use over the last
 several thousand years has likely provided Pacific swallows with
 substantial new habitat, which may have led to population size expansions.
 Incorporating long-term human land-use into species distribution models
 offers insights into when associations with human environments may have
 arisen and generates testable predictions for how populations respond and
 adapt to human land-use change over millennial timescales.
description: # Data from: Long-term human land-use change throughout Southeast Asia
 reshapes the distribution of suitable habitat for a human-commensal bird
 species ##### Brenda Ramirez, [ramirezb@oxy.edu](mailto:ramirezb@oxy.edu),
 Moore Laboratory of Zoology, Occidental College --- The
 presence/background datasets for each of the pseudo-absence methods used
 are included in this repository. Background points were generated using
 inverse distance weighting, random sampling, and zero-filling using the
 same filtered presence points. Environmental conditions were used to
 assess the distribution of suitable habitat, with the present-day
 conditions included as well. ## Description of the data and file structure
 * "pswallow_idw_778.csv" contains Pacific swallow presences with
 778 background points created using inverse distance weighting. *
 "pswallow_rs_2390.csv" contains Pacific swallow presences with
 2390 background points created using random sampling. *
 "pswallow_zf_1312.csv" contains Pacific swallow presences with
 1312 background points created using zero-filling. The presence/background
 files include a column for longitude, latitude, and occurrence. ##
 Sharing/Access information Environmental layers included in our study
 include: 17 bioclimatic variables from Bioclim, elevation from the Shuttle
 Radar Topography Mission, HYDE 3.2.1 human land-use dataset, and
 lithology. These environmental layers are accessible from external sources
 at the websites below: * Bioclim (with data from the last 12,000 years):
 [https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/LateQuaternary_Environment_nc/12293345](https://figshare.com/articles/dataset/LateQuaternary_Environment_nc/12293345) * HYDE 3.2.1 (with data from the last 12,000 years): [https://archaeology.datastations.nl/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.17026/dans-25g-gez3](https://archaeology.datastations.nl/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.17026/dans-25g-gez3) * Global lithological map (GLiM) dataset: [https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.788537](https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.788537) * Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (STRM) elevation dataset: [https://portal.opentopography.org/datasetMetadata?otCollectionID=OT.042013.4326.1](https://portal.opentopography.org/datasetMetadata?otCollectionID=OT.042013.4326.1) ## Code/Software All data were processed using R 4.2.1.