Sheehy et al. (2024): Adaptive stacked species distribution modelling: Novel approaches to large scale quantification of blue carbon to support marine management
Jack Sheehy, Sandy Kerr, Michael Bell, Jo Porter IN: Science of The Total Environment, 949, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.174993
This study introduces a novel concept of ‘Adaptively Stacked’ Species Distribution Models (AS-SDMs) to predict blue carbon habitat distribution, abundance, carbon stocks, and carbon sequestration potential in Orkney. AS-SDMs are built from Weighted Boosted Regression Trees (WBRTs) that adaptively stack blue carbon sediment thickness, sediment carbon content, and sequestration potential to predicted abundance. A novel method to describe substrate types by relative inputs of mud, sand, and gravel is detailed that better characterises the determining factors of seagrass, maerl, and horse mussel abundance. This study also introduces a novel use of indexes to mitigate double counting issues of mixed species distribution models.