Open AccessDoes GARP really fail miserably? A response to Stockman et al . (2006)
Author(s) -
McNyset Kristina M.,
Blackburn Jason K.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
diversity and distributions
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.918
H-Index - 118
eISSN - 1472-4642
pISSN - 1366-9516
DOI - 10.1111/j.1472-4642.2006.00281.x
Subject(s) - environmental niche modelling , computer science , ecological niche , niche , ecology , set (abstract data type) , contrast (vision) , biology , artificial intelligence , habitat , programming language
Stockman et al . (2006) found that ecological niche models built using DesktopGARP ‘failed miserably’ to predict trapdoor spider (genus Promyrmekiaphila ) distributions in California. This apparent failure of GARP (Genetic Algorithm for Rule‐Set Production) was actually a failure of the authors’ methods, that is, attempting to build ecological niche models using single data points. In this paper, we present a re‐analysis of their original data using standard methods with the data appropriately partitioned into training/testing subsets. This re‐evaluation generated accurate distributional predictions that we contrast with theirs. We address the consequences of model‐building using single data points and the need for a foundational understanding of the principles of ecological niche modelling.