Environmental and meteorological data from: A habitat suitability analysis for three Culicoides species implicated in bluetongue virus transmission in the Southeastern United States

Culicoides biting midges adversely impact animal health through transmission of multiple orbiviruses, such as bluetongue virus (BTV). This study used light trapping data collected in the Southeastern United States for three Culicoides midge species that are confirmed or suspected BTV vectors: Culicoides insignis, Culicoides stellifer and Culicoides venustus. Midge presence datasets were combined with meteorological data and ecological data to model habitat suitability for each species. Logistic regression and machine learning models were used to generate individual species distribution models (SDMs). Results for each SDM method were combined in an ensemble model to create a distribution model for each midge species. Based on overlay analyses of livestock populations and midge suitable habitat, there is extensive overlap of cattle and goat populations and suitable habitat for C. insignis in Florida. Suitable habitat for C. stellifer intersects with cattle and goat populations in various ..., Data were obtained for each of the environmental and meteoroloical variables using the following sources: meteorological data from GridMET (gridMET – Climatology Lab) and soil and NDVI from International Soil Reference and Information Centre (ISRIC) (ISRIC—World Soil Information) and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS). We used the mean values of ecological and meteorological variables to create rasters across the study period from 2008-2020. All data processing was completed using R Version 4.2.1 (R Core Team, 2022)., , # Environmental and meteorological data from: A habitat suitability analysis for three Culicoides species implicated in bluetongue virus transmission in the Southeastern United States

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.dv41ns289](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.dv41ns289)

## Description of the data and file structure

## File Type:

The file is stored in a .tif format.

Data can be read in (we used R studio and R software) using software that can read .tif and raster data

## Description:

The .tif file is a raster stack of twelve layers. These layers are environmental and meteorological variables used in our analysis. Each layer is the mean values taken across the study period from 2008-2020. 

When the data is first accessed, each layer is named \"aoi_wgs84_stack_c_**#**\", where # corresponds to the layers in numerical order (aoi_wgs84_stack_c_1, aoi_wgs84_stack_c_2, aoi_wgs84_stack_c_3...) from 1-12.

In order of 1-12, the layers are maximum temperature (Celsius), minimum temperature (Cel...