ABI Innovation: Wallace: a flexible platform for reproducible modeling of species niches and distributions built for community expansion

Cuny City College, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

The software to be produced in this project aims to provide analyses that estimate a species' environmental requirements (habitat) and geographic distribution (range). Scientific progress calls for software with several qualities rarely found together. Ideally, scientific software: 1) is open-source (providing the underlying code); 2) gives conceptual and methodological guidance (orienting the user and helping them make decisions); 3) is flexible (allowing many options); 4) is interactive (showing the results of each stage of the analysis as it is completed); 5) can be expanded/updated easily and quickly; and 6) provides explicit documentation of the analyses run (making it easy to reproduce the results). The software to be produced in this project responds directly to these needs. It will be an example of an innovative way to make new scientific methods accessible to a broad audience of researchers, far beyond the specialists of a particular subfield. It targets a large user base of biologists and natural resource managers, and also will be of interest to programmers, educators, and students. This software should lead to better estimates of species ranges, important to interests as diverse as conservation biology, the study of invasive species and diseases passed to humans from insects and wildlife. The project will train graduate and undergraduate students in computer coding. In addition to the software itself, the researchers will produce scientific publications and online webinars that document and explain its use. Specifically, the project will greatly expand the software Wallace for the burgeoning field of niche/distributional modeling and related fields. Such models estimate environmental suitability for a species, indicating their potential geographic distribution for a wide variety of scientific studies. Currently, researchers struggle to follow advances and achieve a nimble uptake of new ideas and techniques. To improve this situation, the Wallace software provides a modular platform offering customizable workflows through a Graphical User Interface (GUI). Taking advantage of the modular nature of Wallace, the researchers will coordinate with many external partners to add diverse cutting-edge functionalities. The project will: 1) produce a comprehensive framework for modeling based on occurrence data that document the presence of a species; 2) include techniques that take advantage of repeated sampling; 3) allow seamless user up/download and customizable workflows via online and local implementations; and 4) grow the user community. Eventually, this approach could be scaled-up, allowing high-quality modeling for thousands of species. Wallace also will serve as an example for the development of scientific software in other disciplines. The results of the project will be made available at: https://wallaceecomod.github.io/