RT Journal Article
T1 Local ecological niche modelling to provide suitability maps for 27  forest tree species in edge conditions
A1 Stephan, Jean
A1 Bercachy, Christelle
A1 Bechara, Joseph
A1 Charbel, Eliane
A1 López Tirado, Javier
AB Ecological Niche Modelling (ENM) portrays the relationship between the actualgeographical distribution of a species and the environmental factors that in duced this distribution. Yet most models study species over the wider range oftheir distribution; thus, they are rarely appropriate for forest managementand forest restoration on the local scale. This study aims to understand themajor environmental factors affecting the distribution of 27 species, throughlimiting ENM at national level (Lebanon). MaxENT software was used for mod elling. Area under the curve (AUC) values showed a very good robustness ofthe 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 thewarmest month, and Emberger Quotient were sufficient to obtain robust mod elling results. Cloud coverage during summer was identified as a novelty factorexplaining species distribution at the edge of their range. Composite soil andtopography predictors such as Potential Direct Incident Radiation (PDIR) andthe Integrated Moisture Index (IMI) were reduced to simple factors such as as pect, slope and available water content, whose contribution was conditionedto higher data resolution. The high number of presence points enabled us tostudy the range of species distribution gathering them according to their eco logical characteristics. The generated reforestation suitability maps and thelikelihood of occurrence of each species were achieved to define priorityspecies for conservation and forest management. This information could beuseful for decision-makers and foresters
PB SISEF
SN 1971-7458
YR 2020
FD 2020
LK https://hdl.handle.net/10272/23930
UL https://hdl.handle.net/10272/23930
LA eng
NO Stephan, J., Bercachy, C., Bechara, J., Charbel, E., & López-Tirado, J. (2020). Local ecological niche modelling to provide suitability maps for 27 forest tree species in edge conditions. In iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry (Vol. 13, Issue 1, pp. 230–237). Italian Society of Sivilculture and Forest Ecology (SISEF). https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor3331-013
NO Jean Stephan designed and conceivedthis research; Christel Bercachy conductedfield data collection, model running andmapping; Joseph Bechara provided assis tance in model development and datastocktaking; Eliane Charbel and JavierLopez-Tirado reviewed the paper, namelythe 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 RemoteSensing of Lebanon for providing precipita tion and cloud cover data and for MayaNehme and Samar Haddad for editing themanuscript
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 14 jul 2026