DISTRIBUTIONAL MODELING OF CATTAILS ACROSS NORTH AMERICA WITH EMPHASIS ON THE NORTHERN GREAT PLAINS

摘要

North America species of cattails including Typharnlatifolia, Typha angustifolia, and Typha domigensis, arernan important component of marsh ecosystems and arernoften dominant among emergent wetland vegetation.rnTypha ssp are considered invasive due of their ability torntake over marshes and freshwater environment and formrndense, nearly monotypic, stands of vegetation. Forrndecades many of Typha physiological characteristicsrncontributing to cattails expansion (size, growth habitatrncharacteristics, reproduction mode, etc) have been studiedrnand explored. Very few studies, however, have beenrnconducted that investigate the actual extent of theirrndistributions across the continent and the primaryrnecological drivers for their spatial distributions. In thisrnstudy we model, at a continental and regional scale, thernspatial distributions of three species of cattails (T.rnlatifolia, T. angustifolia, and T. domingensis) acrossrnNorth America using maximum entropy and evaluaterneach of the environmental input layers for their respectiverncontributions to the overall spatial distributions of eachrnspecies. Differences were observed in Typha spp.rnpredicted distribution at continental and regional scale.rnTemperature, solar radiation, and ground frost frequencyrnwere primary drivers of Typha distributions. Thernaccuracy of the predicted distributions, and relativernimpact of environmental input variables, will depend onrnthe relevance on environmental variables.