Comparative Analysis of Species Distribution Modeling of Daphne papyracea in Dabka Watershed Nainital District, Uttarakhand

Abstract

Species distribution modeling with different algorithms is used to understand the ecological and geographical distribution of the species in the Himalayan region of Nainital district using various climatic and topographic variables. In this paper, various algorithms were compared using different measures of performance evaluation (threshold-dependent and threshold-independent) for Daphne papyracea, and the modelling results were assessed using indices: sensitivity, specificity, overall prediction success and Cohen's kappa statistic, NMI, AUC, CCRate, MCRate. These indices were used to identify the best model for the species in the study area and best performance was observed for Environmental Distance Algorithm. Such studies therefore, will try to define the suitable management strategies (conservation and protection) for Daphne papyracea that is an economically important plant having medical value.

Keywords: Species distribution modeling, Daphne papyracea , Himalaya, Environmental Distance Algorithm, performance evaluation