Understanding co-occurrence by modelling species simultaneously with a Joint Species Distribution Model (JSDM)

Abstract

Summary: A primary goal of ecology is to understand the fundamental processes underlying the geographic distributions of species. Two major strands of ecology - habitat modelling and community ecology - approach this problem differently. Habitat modellers often use species distribution models (SDMs) to quantify the relationship between species' and their environments without considering potential biotic interactions. Community ecologists, on the other hand, tend to focus on biotic interactions and, in observational studies, use co-occurrence patterns to identify ecological processes. Here, we describe a joint species distribution model (JSDM) that integrates these distinct observational appr..