HABITAT - A PROCEDURE FOR MODELING A DISJOINT ENVIRONMENTAL ENVELOPE FOR A PLANT OR ANIMAL SPECIES

The paper describes HABITAT, a procedure for delineating an environmental envelope bounding all sites where the presence of a species has been recorded and for deciding whether and to what degree any candidate location can be regarded as part of that envelope. The HABITAT procedure uses (a) mathematical programming and (b) computer induction to choose a minimal set of environmental parameters for dimensioning and describing the envelope where presence of a species has been recorded. It disaggregates this envelope into a number of sub-envelopes, each describing, in terms of simple functions of environmental (e.g. soil, climate) parameters, the presence of the species with a degree of accuracy or confidence specific to the sub-envelope. The results of the procedure can be translated into geographic space for mapping. HABITAT is demonstrated using Australia-wide climate data and data on kangaroo distributions.