A quick screening method: Modeling tree species spatial patterns using DEM and WorldView-II image

Species distribution model (SDM) has been the core of spatial ecology and it can provide a measure of a species´ occupancy potential in areas not covered by biological surveys and consequently is becoming an essential tool to forest management. This study developed a framework for modeling two representative tree species in central Taiwan. The SDMs based on topographic variables and vegetation index derived from SPOT and WorldView-2 images for predicting potential habitat of two tree species in a GIS by using maximum entropy, DOMAIN and BIOCLIM). The results showed the variance in model accuracy across species was greater than that across techniques. Besides, SDM models merely based on topographic variables and sample distributions corresponding to them could not be applied on a larger spatial scale. More importantly, Adding spectral variable might offer high potential value, improving model prediction on a small and large spatial scale especially using Worldview-II image data.