Summary

Description

Many invasive species ecologists prefer to use ecological niche models that rely on presenceonly data and not make any assumptions on whether or not an absence point is truly an absence point. Presenceonly models generally attempt to identify environmental similarities that are defined by the presencepoints andor compare them with the environmental background. They make no distinction between presence and absence, rather base predictions largely on verified occurrences. The purpose of the modeling efforts for this project is to provide useful information to selected U.S. National Wildlife Refuges NWR and publicprivate partners by building on existing datasets and new field surveys conducted under this project. Broadly summarized, the goals are to: Provide modelsmaps of the potential distribution and risk of particularly problematic invaders at two scales: 1 the extent of the participating NWR, and 2 the associated Landscape Conservation Cooperative LCC. Identify the environmental conditions that facilitate invasions for participating National Wildlife Refuges and the associated LCC. Utilize proven spatial statistical methods for model training and evaluation. Provide some insight on distribution trends and response of each of the targeted species for participating NWRs and the associated LCC.