Refining area of occupancy to address the modifiable areal unit problem in ecology and conservation
The ‘modifiable areal unit problem’ is prevalent across many aspects of spatial analysis within ecology and conservation. The problem is particularly manifest when calculating metrics for extinction risk estimation, for example, area of occupancy (AOO).Although embedded into the International Union...
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| Format: | Article |
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Wiley
2018
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| Online Access: | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52481/ |
| _version_ | 1848798735870459904 |
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| author | Moat, Justin Bachman, Steven P. Field, Richard Boyd, Doreen S. |
| author_facet | Moat, Justin Bachman, Steven P. Field, Richard Boyd, Doreen S. |
| author_sort | Moat, Justin |
| building | Nottingham Research Data Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | The ‘modifiable areal unit problem’ is prevalent across many aspects of spatial analysis within ecology and conservation. The problem is particularly manifest when calculating metrics for extinction risk estimation, for example, area of occupancy (AOO).Although embedded into the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List criteria, AOO is often not used or is poorly applied. Here we evaluate new and existing methods for calculating AOO from occurrence records and present a method for determining the minimum AOO using a uniform grid. We evaluate the grid cell shape, grid origin and grid rotation with both real-world and simulated data, reviewing the effects on
AOO values, and possible impacts for species already assessed on the IUCN Red List. We show that AOO can vary by up to 80% and a ratio of cells to points of 1:1.21 gives the maximum variation in the number of occupied cells. These findings potentially impact 3% of existing species on the IUCN Red List, as well as species not yet assessed. We show that a new method that combines both grid rotation and moving grid origin gives fast, robust and reproducible results and, in the majority of cases, achieves the minimum AOO. As well as reporting minimum AOO, we outline a confidence interval which should be incorporated in to existing tools that support species risk assessment. We also make further recommendations for reporting AOO and other areal measurements within ecology, leading to more robust methods for future species risk assessment. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:24:30Z |
| format | Article |
| id | nottingham-52481 |
| institution | University of Nottingham Malaysia Campus |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T20:24:30Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | Wiley |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | nottingham-524812020-05-04T19:37:33Z https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52481/ Refining area of occupancy to address the modifiable areal unit problem in ecology and conservation Moat, Justin Bachman, Steven P. Field, Richard Boyd, Doreen S. The ‘modifiable areal unit problem’ is prevalent across many aspects of spatial analysis within ecology and conservation. The problem is particularly manifest when calculating metrics for extinction risk estimation, for example, area of occupancy (AOO).Although embedded into the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List criteria, AOO is often not used or is poorly applied. Here we evaluate new and existing methods for calculating AOO from occurrence records and present a method for determining the minimum AOO using a uniform grid. We evaluate the grid cell shape, grid origin and grid rotation with both real-world and simulated data, reviewing the effects on AOO values, and possible impacts for species already assessed on the IUCN Red List. We show that AOO can vary by up to 80% and a ratio of cells to points of 1:1.21 gives the maximum variation in the number of occupied cells. These findings potentially impact 3% of existing species on the IUCN Red List, as well as species not yet assessed. We show that a new method that combines both grid rotation and moving grid origin gives fast, robust and reproducible results and, in the majority of cases, achieves the minimum AOO. As well as reporting minimum AOO, we outline a confidence interval which should be incorporated in to existing tools that support species risk assessment. We also make further recommendations for reporting AOO and other areal measurements within ecology, leading to more robust methods for future species risk assessment. Wiley 2018-05-23 Article PeerReviewed Moat, Justin, Bachman, Steven P., Field, Richard and Boyd, Doreen S. (2018) Refining area of occupancy to address the modifiable areal unit problem in ecology and conservation. Conservation Biology . ISSN 1523-1739 IUCN Red List conservation assessments point data raster species distribution threatened species Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP) https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/cobi.13139 doi:10.1111/cobi.13139 doi:10.1111/cobi.13139 |
| spellingShingle | IUCN Red List conservation assessments point data raster species distribution threatened species Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP) Moat, Justin Bachman, Steven P. Field, Richard Boyd, Doreen S. Refining area of occupancy to address the modifiable areal unit problem in ecology and conservation |
| title | Refining area of occupancy to address the modifiable areal unit problem in ecology and conservation |
| title_full | Refining area of occupancy to address the modifiable areal unit problem in ecology and conservation |
| title_fullStr | Refining area of occupancy to address the modifiable areal unit problem in ecology and conservation |
| title_full_unstemmed | Refining area of occupancy to address the modifiable areal unit problem in ecology and conservation |
| title_short | Refining area of occupancy to address the modifiable areal unit problem in ecology and conservation |
| title_sort | refining area of occupancy to address the modifiable areal unit problem in ecology and conservation |
| topic | IUCN Red List conservation assessments point data raster species distribution threatened species Modifiable Areal Unit Problem (MAUP) |
| url | https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52481/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52481/ https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/52481/ |