In response to the pressing challenges of the ongoing biodiversity crisis, the protection of endangered species and their habitats, as well as the monitoring of invasive species are crucial. Habitat suitability modeling (HSM) is often treated as the silver bullet to address these challenges, commonly relying on generic variables sourced from widely available datasets. However, for species with high habitat requirements, or for modeling the suitability of habitats within the geographic range of a species, variables at a coarse level of detail may fall short.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe East African mountain ecosystems are facing increasing threats due to global change, putting their unique socio-ecological systems at risk. To monitor and understand these changes, researchers and stakeholders require accessible analysis-ready remote sensing data. Although satellite data is available for many applications, it often lacks accurate geometric orientation and has extensive cloud cover.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEcosystem functions and services are severely threatened by unprecedented global loss in biodiversity. To counteract these trends, it is essential to develop systems to monitor changes in biodiversity for planning, evaluating, and implementing conservation and mitigation actions. However, the implementation of monitoring systems suffers from a trade-off between grain (i.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFConventional practices in species distribution modeling lack predictive power when the spatial structure of data is not taken into account. However, choosing a modeling approach that accounts for overfitting during model training can improve predictive performance on spatially separated test data, leading to more reliable models. This study introduces (https://github.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFTo relate gene networks and organ shape, one needs to address two wicked problems: i) Gene expression is often variable locally, and shape is reproducible globally; ii) gene expression can have cascading effects on tissue mechanics, with possibly counterintuitive consequences for the final organ shape. Here, we address such wicked problems, taking advantage of simpler plant organ development where shape only emerges from cell division and elongation. We confirm that mutation in VERNALIZATION INDEPENDENCE 3 (), a subunit of the conserved polymerase-associated factor 1 complex (Paf1C), increases gene expression variability in Arabidopsis.
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