The purpose of the course is to introduce students to the vast and fascinating field of ecological niche modeling and species distributions. The course aims to teach students the most important conceptual foundations for the proper use and interpretation of ecological niche models and to help them acquire technical skills for using modeling programs and R packages, enabling them to conduct various analyses, with an emphasis on topics such as climate change and biological invasions. As an introductory course, there will be sessions focused on presenting central concepts in geographic ecology and other topics, as well as practical sessions for the use of modeling programs and R packages.

• Starts on Wednesday, February 19, 2025, and ends on April 9, 2025.
• Classes will be held every Wednesday from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM (GMT-6) for 8 weeks.

• Modality: Virtual.
• Theoretical/Practical: To complete the program, participants must attend more than 75% of virtual synchronous classes and achieve an average greater than or equal to 70 in evaluations.
• Cost: Free.

• Availability of at least 16 hours during the entire program to attend eight virtual synchronous sessions. (2 hrs/class)
• Availability of at least 32 hours during the entire the program for completing short assignments, labs, and a final project. (4 hrs/week)
• Have basic knowledge of R and GIS (in R or any other program).
• Fill out the form to Participate in Redbioma activities (previously circulated, please fill out only once).

To acquire basic theoretical and practical knowledge for the proper use of ecological niche modeling and species distribution analysis.

• Understand the conceptual foundations of geographic ecology that underpin ecological niche modeling and species distributions.
• Become familiar with the use of R programs and packages to generate ecological niche models.
• Apply ecological niche modeling and species distribution analysis in the context of climate change.

The course is both theoretical and practical. During the synchronous sessions, time will be allocated to present the basic concepts necessary to understand the functionality and proper use of ecological niche models through specific examples. Additionally, practical exercises will be conducted to provide students with the basic tools to develop research projects. Assignments will be given to reinforce the knowledge acquired, and a final project, either individual or team-based, will be developed to apply the concepts and procedures learned throughout the course.

• All synchronous sessions will be recorded and published on the redbioma website.
• Final research projects will be published on the redbioma website.

1. Introduction to the course
1. Introduction to niche models.
2. Concepts of ecological niche.
3. Practice: Installing R packages.
2. Fundamental concepts
1. Niches and distributions.
2. The modeling process.
3. Practice: Exploring ntbox.
3. Input data
1. Biological data: considerations and sources.
2. Environmental data: calibration area, M, considerations, and sources.
3. Practice: Obtaining and cleaning biological data and preparing environmental layers.
4. Modeling algorithms I
1. Types of algorithms.
2. Maxent.
3. Practice: Modeling on the Maxent platform.
5. Modeling algorithms II
1. Ellipsoids.
2. Practice: Modeling with ellipsoids in ntbox.
6. Transfer of niche models in space and time
1. Transfer of models.
2. Considerations in the context of climate change.
3. Practice: Model transfer.
7. Model evaluation
1. Performance vs statistical significance.
2. Performance metrics and statistical validation methods.
3. Practice: Model evaluation.
8. Closing and final project presentation
1. Recap.

Students will complete assignments and a final project. Evaluation items are as follows:

The assignments can be submitted until 12:00 GMT-6 (noon) on the day before the next class.