Two independent species distribution models, Random Forest and MaxEnt, were used to map habitat suitability for the vulnerable Stiff Yellow Flax plant in Eastern Georgian Bay, Ontario. The Random Forest model achieved an Area Under the Curve (AUC) of 0.936 and a True Skill Statistic (TSS) of 0.753. This dataset was created by Abbey Kealey and provides a baseline for conservation planning by the Georgian Bay Land Trust.
Use Cases
- Prioritizing conservation areas based on predicted highly suitable habitat along southern shorelines.
- Analyzing the influence of environmental drivers like mean summer temperature and NDVI on species distribution.
- Validating species distribution models by comparing results from independent MaxEnt and Random Forest approaches.
- Supporting land trust management decisions for a vulnerable shoreline perennial plant.
Strengths
- High predictive accuracy reported, with Random Forest achieving an AUC of 0.936 and TSS of 0.753.
- Agreement between two independent modelling approaches (MaxEnt and Random Forest) strengthens confidence in results.
- Explicitly designed to support a concrete conservation action plan for the Georgian Bay Land Trust.
Limitations
- Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
- Row count and file formats are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
- Spatial coverage is restricted to Eastern Georgian Bay, Ontario, limiting broader applicability.
Provenance
- Source
- Borealis Harvested Dataverse
- Collection Method
- Modelled using Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) and Random Forest (RF) approaches on environmental predictor data.
- Freshness
- Last updated 2026-05-02 04:10:12; freshness should be verified.
- Geography
- Eastern Georgian Bay, Ontario, Canada