@article{10272/23930,
year = {2020},
url = {https://hdl.handle.net/10272/23930},
abstract = {Ecological Niche Modelling (ENM) portrays the relationship between the actual
geographical distribution of a species and the environmental factors that in duced this distribution. Yet most models study species over the wider range of
their distribution; thus, they are rarely appropriate for forest management
and forest restoration on the local scale. This study aims to understand the
major environmental factors affecting the distribution of 27 species, through
limiting ENM at national level (Lebanon). MaxENT software was used for mod elling. Area under the curve (AUC) values showed a very good robustness of
the models. Minimal biogeographic and climatic parameters such as elevation,
distance from the sea, annual mean precipitation, the average minimum tem perature of the coldest month, the average maximum temperature of the
warmest month, and Emberger Quotient were sufficient to obtain robust mod elling results. Cloud coverage during summer was identified as a novelty factor
explaining species distribution at the edge of their range. Composite soil and
topography predictors such as Potential Direct Incident Radiation (PDIR) and
the Integrated Moisture Index (IMI) were reduced to simple factors such as as pect, slope and available water content, whose contribution was conditioned
to higher data resolution. The high number of presence points enabled us to
study the range of species distribution gathering them according to their eco logical characteristics. The generated reforestation suitability maps and the
likelihood of occurrence of each species were achieved to define priority
species for conservation and forest management. This information could be
useful for decision-makers and foresters},
organization = {Jean Stephan designed and conceived
this research; Christel Bercachy conducted
field data collection, model running and
mapping; Joseph Bechara provided assis tance in model development and data
stocktaking; Eliane Charbel and Javier
Lopez-Tirado reviewed the paper, namely
the material and method and discussion.
The Lebanese Reforestation Initiative pro vided the technical assistance and the fi nancial support of this work. We are thank ful for the National Center for Remote
Sensing of Lebanon for providing precipita tion and cloud cover data and for Maya
Nehme and Samar Haddad for editing the
manuscript},
publisher = {SISEF},
title = {Local ecological niche modelling to provide suitability maps for 27  forest tree species in edge conditions},
doi = {10.3832/ifor3331-013},
author = {Stephan, Jean and Bercachy, Christelle and Bechara, Joseph and Charbel, Eliane and López Tirado, Javier},
}