Dear MGET users,

We cordially invite you to attend a 1-day workshop on species distribution modeling (SDM) with MGET, on Saturday, 14 December in Dunedin, New Zealand, following the conclusion of the Society for Marine Mammalogy’s Biennial Conference. The workshop will be a mixture of presentations and practical exercises. Attendees will be seated at ArcGIS workstations provided by the University of Otago and over the course of the day we will work though the steps of an SDM example.

Starting with records of sightings of a marine animal, we will build up a geoprocessing workflow that links the sightings to oceanographic observations, explores statistical properties of the data, fits a multivariate statistical model relating the animal’s distribution to oceanographic covariates, evaluates the model’s performance, and predicts the animal’s distribution across the seascape using remote sensing imagery. The specific model we will build depends on attendee interests, but likely to be either models of cetacean habitat suitability and density from line transect survey data, models of fish habitat suitability and CPUE from fishery catch data, or a model of seabird habitat use or possibly behavior from telemetry data. Regardless of which example we select, the overall workflow will cover many of the steps needed for all of them, and we’ll discuss important difference between them.

The cost will be NZ$25-35 per person (we are still working out the exact amount), plus lunch unless you bring your own. Space is limited. To register, or if you have any questions, please contact Judy Rodda () and myself. We hope to see you there.

Best regards,

Jason Roberts ()

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