The economics of land use reveals a selection bias in tree species distribution models

Abstract

In human-dominated ecosystems, the presence of a given species is the result of both the ecological suitability of the site and human impacts such as land-use choices. The influence of land-use choices on the predictions of species distribution models (SDMs) has, however, been often neglected. Here, we provide a theoretical analysis of the land-use selection bias affecting classical SDMs in the case of either presence-only or presence–absence datasets. Land-use selection bias in the predictions of SDMs is then quantified for four widespread European tree species.