Overview

In this unit, we will focus on virtual species as a tool for testing species distribution models. You will learn how to generate virtual species by defining their ecological preferences, and simulating their distributions. The virtual species will allow you to create controlled experiments to evaluate SDMs in your research project.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this unit, you should be able to:

• understand the purpose of virtual species in species distribution modeling,
• create virtual species in R,
• be able to define species response curves,
• and sample occurrence points under different scenarios.