Scaleplans - From large-scale distribution patterns to efficient conservation plans

Distinguishing historical from environmental effects on species distribution and diversity is crucial for effective conservation planning, especially under changing environmental conditions: we need to know how strongly each species responds to the environment. Data sets with explicit information are scarce, and models applied so far have unverified assumptions and often ungrounded conclusions. This project aims to improve the efficiency of data analysis and conservation plans by disentangling the historical signature from environmental effects on current species distribution patterns, and by controlling the robustness of data and methods at every step of the analysis. Results will provide important insights into the origin and generality of biodiversity trends and species distributions, as well as innovative tools and solid guidelines for efficient conservation planning under global change.