See more from this Division: Topical Sessions
See more from this Session: Integrative Systematic Paleontology for a New Century: Advancing Evolutionary, Phylogenetic, Biogeographic, and Ecologic Theory with Specimen-Based Studies
Abstract:
Two sets of data are used for analysis: 1) species occurrences, 2) environmental parameters. Data were collected from literature, museum collections, and targeted field work to ensure even data coverage in areas poorly represented in museum or literature sources. Estimates of the fundamental niche for individual brachiopod species were modeled using the ENM program GARP. GARP identifies non-random associations between species occurrence and environmental variables, creates a rule set for an environmental parameter, and then tests each rule through an iterative process to determine the statistically best niche model. Estimated niches are projected into geographic space using ArcGIS, and ranges are quantified with Spatial Analyst.
Statistically significant patterns of brachiopod habitat tracking and range size shifts were recovered. Analyses of the differential response of native and invasive brachiopod species of the C5 sequence can provide a better understanding of the long term impact of invasive species. These results may have implications for understanding how modern shallow marine benthic organisms will track their environments as they shift due to climatic variability and human-induced environmental changes.
See more from this Division: Topical Sessions
See more from this Session: Integrative Systematic Paleontology for a New Century: Advancing Evolutionary, Phylogenetic, Biogeographic, and Ecologic Theory with Specimen-Based Studies