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High resolution distribution modelling of a threatened short-range endemic plant informed by edaphic factors.

Tomlinson, Sean, Curtin University, https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0864-5391
Lewandrowski, Wolfgang, Government of Western Australia, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7496-7690
Elliott, Carole, Government of Western Australia
Miller, Ben, Government of Western Australia, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8569-6697
Turner, Shane, Government of Western Australia
sean.tomlinson@curtin.edu.au, wolfgang.lewandrowski@dbca.wa.gov.au, carole.elliott@dbca.wa.gov.au, ben.miller@dbca.wa.gov.au, shane.turnere@dbca.wa.gov.au
Published Dec 02, 2019 on Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.5mkkwh71s

Cite this dataset

Tomlinson, Sean et al. (2019). High resolution distribution modelling of a threatened short-range endemic plant informed by edaphic factors. [Dataset]. Dryad. https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.5mkkwh71s

Abstract

  1. Short-range endemic plants often have edaphic specialisations that, with their restricted distributions, expose them to increased risk of anthropogenic extinction.
  2. Here, we present a modelling approach to understand habitat suitability for Ricinocarpos brevis R.J.F.Hend. & Mollemans (Euphorbiaceae), a threatened shrub confined to three isolated populations in the semi-arid south-west of Western Australia. The model is a maximum entropy species distribution projection constructed on the basis of physical soil characteristics and geomorphology data at approximately 25 m2 (1 arc-second) resolution.
  3. The model predicts the species to occur on shallow, low bulk density soils that are located high in the landscape. The model shows high affinity (72.1% average likelihood of occurrence) for the known populations of R. brevis, as well as identifying likely locations that are not currently known to support the species. There was a strong relationship between the likelihood of R. brevis occurrence and soil moisture content that the model estimated at a depth of 20 cm.
  4. We advocate that our approach should be standardised using publicly available data to generate testable hypotheses for the distribution and conservation management of short--range endemic plant species for all of continental Australia.