Summary of talk:
The talk will present an ecological niche modelling approach that uses high-resolution Hawaiian Island climate variables and occurrence data to estimate potential distributions of native ferns. The biodiversity of the Hawaiian Islands faces common threats, such as competition with introduced species and habitat loss, which can act synergistically to intensify competition for habitat availability. Based on the geographic predictions of the niche model, climatically suitable areas for native fern species will be identified and the remaining available area will be quantified, considering land-use change on the main Hawaiian Islands. Finally, the potential of this novel ecological niche modelling approach for conservation risk assessment of species in rapidly changing urbanised ecosystems will be discussed.

Biography
Laura Jiménez is a mathematician specialising in Probability and Statistics, with a master’s degree from CIMAT (Mexico) and a PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from the University of Kansas. She has applied her expertise in mathematical modelling and statistical analysis to biological problems, such as the estimation of ecological niches. As a postdoctoral researcher, she worked at the University of Hawaii and the Centre for Mathematical Modelling (CMM, University of Chile), where she is currently part of the Climate and Biodiversity group as a CNRS-CMM researcher.

Friday 11 October, 12 PM Chile (3 PM UTC)