nichevol - Tools for Ecological Niche Evolution Assessment Considering
Uncertainty
A collection of tools that allow users to perform critical
steps in the process of assessing ecological niche evolution
over phylogenies, with uncertainty incorporated explicitly in
reconstructions. The method proposed here for ancestral
reconstruction of ecological niches characterizes species'
niches using a bin-based approach that incorporates uncertainty
in estimations. Compared to other existing methods, the
approaches presented here reduce risk of overestimation of
amounts and rates of ecological niche evolution. The main
analyses include: initial exploration of environmental data in
occurrence records and accessible areas, preparation of data
for phylogenetic analyses, executing comparative phylogenetic
analyses of ecological niches, and plotting for
interpretations. Details on the theoretical background and
methods used can be found in: Owens et al. (2020)
<doi:10.1002/ece3.6359>, Peterson et al. (1999)
<doi:10.1126/science.285.5431.1265>, Soberón and Peterson
(2005) <doi:10.17161/bi.v2i0.4>, Peterson (2011)
<doi:10.1111/j.1365-2699.2010.02456.x>, Barve et al. (2011)
<doi:10.1111/ecog.02671>, Machado-Stredel et al. (2021)
<doi:10.21425/F5FBG48814>, Owens et al. (2013)
<doi:10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2013.04.011>, Saupe et al. (2018)
<doi:10.1093/sysbio/syx084>, and Cobos et al. (2021)
<doi:10.1111/jav.02868>.
