物种-环境关系已通过物种分布模型(SDM)和物种丰度模型(SAM)进行了广泛的探索。它们已成为了解生物多样性保护的空间生态学和种群动态的关键组成部分。尽管如此,在物种范围的内部结构内,栖息地适宜性和物种丰富度并不总是表现出相似的模式,使用来自SDM或SAM的信息可能是不完整的,并误导了保护工作。我们评估了对丰度-适宜性关系的支持,并使用合并后的信息优先考虑了南美矮凯门虫(Paleosuchuspalpebrosus和P.trigonatus)的保护。我们使用了7个环境预测集(地表水,人类影响,地形,降水,温度,动态生境指数,土壤温度),2种回归方法(广义线性模型-GLM,广义加性模型-GAM),和4个参数分布(二项式,Poisson,负二项式,Gamma)来开发分布和丰度模型。我们使用最好的预测模型来定义四个类别(低,中等,高,非常高)计划物种保护。两种古生物物种的最佳分布和丰度模型包括所有预测集的组合,除了三角菌的最佳丰度模型只包含温度,降水,地表水,人类影响,和地形。我们发现环境适宜性预测丰度的非一致性和低解释力与先前有关SDM-SAM的研究一致。我们从每个最佳SDM和SAM中提取了最相关的信息,并创建了一个共识模型(2,790,583km2),我们将其归类为低(39.6%)。中等(42.7%),高(14.9%),和非常高(2.8%)的保护优先事项。我们确定了279,338平方公里,必须将保护列为优先事项,其中只有29%的区域受到保护。我们得出的结论是,来自相关方法的最佳模型可用于提供系统的优先排序方案,以促进保护,并作为替代品,以产生用于量化生态模式的见解。
Species-environment relationships have been extensively explored through species distribution models (SDM) and species abundance models (SAM), which have become key components to understand the spatial ecology and population dynamics directed at biodiversity conservation. Nonetheless, within the internal structure of species\' ranges, habitat suitability and species abundance do not always show similar patterns, and using information derived from either SDM or SAM could be incomplete and mislead conservation efforts. We gauged support for the abundance-suitability relationship and used the combined information to prioritize the conservation of South American dwarf caimans (Paleosuchus palpebrosus and P. trigonatus). We used 7 environmental predictor sets (surface water, human impact, topography, precipitation, temperature, dynamic habitat indices, soil temperature), 2 regressions methods (Generalized Linear Models-GLM, Generalized Additive Models-GAM), and 4 parametric distributions (Binomial, Poisson, Negative binomial, Gamma) to develop distribution and abundance models. We used the best predictive models to define four categories (low, medium, high, very high) to plan species conservation. The best distribution and abundance models for both Paleosuchus species included a combination of all predictor sets, except for the best abundance model for P. trigonatus which incorporated only temperature, precipitation, surface water, human impact, and topography. We found non-consistent and low explanatory power of environmental suitability to predict abundance which aligns with previous studies relating SDM-SAM. We extracted the most relevant information from each optimal SDM and SAM and created a consensus model (2,790,583 km2) that we categorized as low (39.6%), medium (42.7%), high (14.9%), and very high (2.8%) conservation priorities. We identified 279,338 km2 where conservation must be critically prioritized and only 29% of these areas are under protection. We concluded that optimal models from correlative methods can be used to provide a systematic prioritization scheme to promote conservation and as surrogates to generate insights for quantifying ecological patterns.