Process / pipelineEcological modelling

Species Distribution Models (MaxEnt)

Species Distribution Models (SDMs) using Maximum Entropy (MaxEnt) are statistical methods developed by Phillips, Anderson, and Schapire (2004) to predict where species are likely to occur based on known occurrence points and environmental variables. MaxEnt has become one of the most widely used algorithms in conservation biology and biogeography for mapping suitable habitat and assessing climate change impacts.

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Sources

  1. Phillips, S. J., Anderson, R. P., & Schapire, R. E. (2006). Maximum entropy modelling of species geographic distributions. Ecological Modelling, 190(3-4), 231-259. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2005.03.026
  2. Elith, J., Phillips, S. J., Hastie, T., Dudík, M., Chee, Y. E., & Yates, C. J. (2011). A statistical explanation of MaxEnt for ecologists. Diversity and Distributions, 17(1), 43-57. DOI: 10.1111/j.1472-4642.2010.00725.x
  3. Merow, C., Smith, M. J., & Silander, J. A. (2013). A practical guide to MaxEnt for modelling species' distributions: What it does, and why inputs and settings matter. Ecography, 36(10), 1058-1069. DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0587.2013.07872.x

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Referenced by

ScholarGateSpecies Distribution Models (MaxEnt) (Species Distribution Models using Maximum Entropy Modelling). Retrieved 2026-06-04 from https://scholargate.app/en/sustainability/species-distribution-models