American Beech SDM DATA

Project: Anticipating Shifts in American Beech Distribution in a Changing Climate Description: This dataset supports a study on species distribution modeling (SDM) of American Beech (Fagus grandifolia) to anticipate its distribution shifts under climate change scenarios. The data includes a stratified random sampling of presence points based on the USFS basal area grid, variance inflation factor (VIF) analysis, correlation analysis, environmental data (with comparisons between POLARIS and SoilGrids), species occurrence points, random forest variable importance analysis, ensemble forecasting across various current and future climate scenarios (SSP1, SSP2, SSP3), and projections of future habitat suitability. The dataset is used in both current-only and future scenario modeling, covering SSP1, SSP2, and SSP3 climate scenarios for 2011–2040, 2041–2070, and 2071–2100. It also includes model evaluation metrics, range size comparisons, and ensemble modeling outputs. Additionally, Multivariate Environmental Similarity Surface (MESS) analyses are conducted to assess the similarity between current environmental conditions and future climate projections. MESS results for SSP1, SSP2, and SSP3 scenarios are included in the dataset for all three periods (2011–2040, 2041–2070, 2071–2100), providing insight into areas where environmental conditions deviate from the present climate envelope. Keywords: American Beech, Species Distribution Modeling, Climate Change, SSP Scenarios, Random Forest, Ensemble Modeling, Future Projections, MESS Analysis.