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22 CLIMATE CHANGE ALBERTAS BIODIVERSITY An Improved Method for Species Distribution Models A new statistical method addresses spatial biases in widely-available presence-only species observations leading to more accurate species distribution models. Species distribution modeling page 12 requires reliable species location information as a starting point. These data are often in the form of presence-only data obtained from databases of museum records or field sightings including Alberta databases like ACIMS.22 These records tend to be concentrated in areas that are more easily sampled because they may not be representative of all species locations these records may produce unreliable predic- tions. Jessica Stolar and Scott Nielsen 2015 demonstrated a method of accounting for this effort bias in species distribution models of rare vascular plants bryophytes and butterflies in Alberta. By relating existing species records to the density of roads location of experts resource extraction sites population density terrain ruggedness and protected status they created an estimation of collection effort that can be used to weight species observations in the distribution models. This flexible approach is widely applicable due to the increasing avail- ability of online biodiversity databases and will lead to more robust spatial predictions. Photo The Yellow Glacier Lily grows in moist areas with rich soil in the alpine and subalpine. Because of the rugged terrain and challenging access these high elevation habitats are relatively under-sampled compared to other regions of the province. 22 ACIMS Alberta Conservation Information Management System. For more information httpwww.albertaparks.caalbertaparkscamanagement-land-usealberta-conservation-information-management-system-acims.aspx