Table 2 Variable importance using change in Area Under the Curve (AUC) for each environmental layer using 5 species distribution modelling algorithms a(columns) by two different background approaches (shown as random/targeted) to model the distributions of Salvator merianae (Argentine black and white tegu), Salvator rufescens (red tegu), Tupinambis teguixin (gold tegus), and the 3 combined in South America. The most important predictor in each is in bold.

From: Modeling the distributions of tegu lizards in native and potential invasive ranges

 

GLM

MARS

BRT

RF

Maxent

Mean ΔAUC

S. merianae

Warmest month (BIO5)

0.009/na

0.002/0.006

na/na

0.016/0.023

0.007/0.006

0.009/0.012

Coldest quarter (BIO11)

0.289/0.335

0.247/0.258

0.256/0.276

0.269/0.311

0.278/0.278

0.268/0.291

Precipitation (BIO12)

0.097/na

0.092/0.153

0.072/0.197

0.047/0.098

0.08/0.162

0.078/0.153

PET

na/0.044

0.014/0.006

na/na

0.02/0.042

0.005/0.008

0.013/0.025

S. rufescens

Warmest month (BIO5)

0.005/na

0.024/0.005

na/na

0.002/0.009

0.02/0.004

0.013/0.006

Coldest quarter (BIO11)

0.121/na

0.119/0.119

0.084/na

0.08/0.084

0.134/0.075

0.101/0.093

Precipitation (BIO12)

0.197/0.3

0.276/0.303

0.122/0.191

0.085/0.163

0.127/0.142

0.161/0.22

PET

0.071/0.097

0.034/0.045

na/0.068

0.035/0.054

0.023/0.07

0.041/0.067

T. teguixin

Warmest month (BIO5)

0.042/na

0.017/0

na/na

0.107/0.014

0.026/0

0.048/0.003

Coldest quarter (BIO11)

0.232/0.188

0.212/0.283

0.168/0.203

0.266/0.208

0.172/0.241

0.210/0.225

Precipitation (BIO12)

0.010/0.049

0.02/0.028

0.053/0.043

0.139/0.049

0.057/0.044

0.056/0.043

PET

na/na

0.006/0.001

na/na

0.124/0.004

0.05/0.004

0.06/0.003

Combined tegus

Warmest month (BIO5)

0.064/0.058

0.016/0.013

na/na

0.048/0.06

0.022/0.025

0.038/0.039

Coldest quarter (BIO11)

0.146/0.252

0.143/0.228

0.154/0.213

0.133/0.244

0.125/0.231

0.14/0.234

Precipitation (BIO12)

0.048/0.015

0.012/0.048

0.035/0.033

0.047/0.05

0.016/0.041

0.032/0.038

PET

0.014/na

0.014/0.048

0.035/na

0.052/0.03

0.021/0.02

0.027/0.032

  1. aAbbreviations: SDM, species distribution model; AUC, area under the curve; ΔAUC, change in AUC; GLM, generalized linear model (logistic regression); MARS, multivariate adaptive regression splines; BRT, boosted regression trees; RF, random forest; PET, potential evapotranspiration; na, not applicable.