Comments were presented on an article published in October 2020 in Ecology and Evolution (“Predictive ability of a process-based versus a correlative species distribution model”) by Higgins et al. This analyzed natural distributions of Australian eucalypt and acacia species and assessed the adventive range of selected species outside Australia.

Unfortunately, inappropriate variables were used with the example MaxEnt species distribution model of Acacia saligna when applied outside Australia, so that large climatically suitable areas in the Mediterranean area of the Northern Hemisphere were not identified.

To illustrate the problem, data from the natural distribution of A. saligna in Western Australia were accessed using the spatial portal of the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA, spatial.ala.org.au). The MaxEnt analysis method available in the ALA was used to show that large areas of the  Mediterranean Basin are climatically suitable for A. saligna.

See Ecology and Evolution paper for details.

The archived data describe the natural distribution of Acacia saligna in Western Australia. They were generated by the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA). Only the latitude and longitude occurrence data (columns G and H) were used in the MaxEnt analysis.

Column

A – Record ID – as used by ALA

B – Institution – Parent organization of collecting agency

C – Collection ID – identification code for collection

D – Collection agency  within parent organization

F – Locality of occurrence

G – Latitude

H – Longitude

I – Coordinate uncertainty in metres

J – Collecting individual

K – Year of collection

L – Month of collection

M – Day of collection