Abstract: Ecology studies the distribution and abundance of species, and their interactions with other species and the environment. Key questions in ecology include what are the environmental factors and interspecies dependencies that drive species distributions, how these processes together affect species community structures and how environmental changes, such as climate change, affect species distribution and species communities. These questions are essentially about variable selection and causal and predictive inference. Hence, statistics has a central role in answering them. The species distribution models (SDMs) used for these analyses are traditionally based on generalized linear and additive models. In this talk I will present how Gaussian processes (GPs) can be used in SDMs and what benefits and challenges this provides. I will present recent results on GP based species distribution modeling in the Baltic Sea and Great Barrier Reef, Australia. I will discuss the potential future development and current challenges related to computation and model building.

Speaker: Jarno Vanhatalo

Affiliation: Professor of Statistics, University of Helsinki

Place of Seminar: University of Helsinki