TITLE:
Predicting Potential Habitat Distribution of Sorrel (Rumex vesicarius L.) in India from Presence-Only Data Using Maximum Entropy Model
AUTHORS:
Medagam Thirupathi Reddy, Hameedunnisa Begum, Neelam Sunil, Pandravada Someswara Rao, Natarajan Sivaraj, Shashi Kumar
KEYWORDS:
AUC, Climate Suitability, DIVA-GIS, Goodness-of-Fit, MaxEnt, Model Accuracy, ROC Curve
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.2 No.6,
June
26,
2015
ABSTRACT: Sorrel (Rumex vesicarius L.) is an underutilized,
underexploited, traditional, valuable medicinal
and vegetable herb. It is wildly distributed
as an environmental weed and is
sparsely cultivated in market and truck gardens as a minor leafy vegetable crop
in south India. Concerning nutritional and health security of developing
country like India, increasing production either by introducing its cultivation
in non-traditional areas or by enhancing its productivity can be an important issue
in near future. It is, therefore, most essential to predict possible potential new
growing areas for sorrel in India. Habitat suitability
modeling provides a tool for researchers and managers to understand the
potential extent of concerned species spread. One dataset for sorrel presence locations
(n = 21 points) in Karnataka and
Andhra Pradesh states of south India was generated following two field surveys organized
by the National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources Regional Station, Rajendranagar
in collaboration with Vegetable Research Station, Dr. Y. S. R. Horticultural University,
Rajendranagar during 2010-2011. WorldClim dataset comprising of 19 bioclimatic data
layers representing current climatic conditions was downloaded from http://www.worldclim.org. Sorrel presence locations dataset and WorldClim dataset were used with maximum
entropy (MaxEnt) modeling to develop preliminary habitat suitability map for sorrel
in India. MaxEnt model was able to precisely predict current suitable sorrel habitat
(training AUC = 0.993 and test AUC = 0.985). Further study is needed to examine
the potential for sorrel to cultivate beyond its current range. Habitat suitability
modeling provides an essential tool for enhancing our understanding of sorrel species
spread.