DOMAIN

DOMAIN is a model that assesses new sites in terms of their environmental similarity to sites of known presence.1 It has the ability to operate effectively using only presence records and a limited number of biophysical attributes.2

Description

DOMAIN uses a similarity measure by transforming the known occurrences into an environmental space and computing the minimum distance in environmental space from any cell to a known presence of the species. The result of this is a surface which is ranked for likelihood of having a species occur.3

At its very simplest, this model generates maps of similarity or distance.  For example to predict the potential distribution of a particular taxon, DOMAIN maps those regions which are most similar to areas where the taxon is known to occur. The measure of similarity used in DOMAIN is based on the Gower metric.  For any location in the mapping area, the values in the layer files define an environmental coordinate.  For example if 3 layers are open containing rainfall, vegetation type and elevation, the environmental coordinate for any location is the set of three cell values from the three layers at that point.  The Gower metric defines a means of computing the distance between any two such environmental coordinates. 

The application of DOMAIN is not limited to mapping potential distribution of taxa.  The problem of similarity mapping arises in other areas.  For example it may be useful to map the regions which are least similar to this set of survey sites when selecting new site locations or examining the adequacy of a sampling strategy.

The DOMAIN algorithm is described in Carpenter, G., Gillison, A.N. and Winter, J. (1993). DOMAIN: a flexible modelling procedure for mapping potential distributions of plants and animals, Biodiversity and Conservation. 2, 667-680.4

Function

• Analysis tools
  • Simple – distribution
• User interface
  • Personal or institutional use
  • Raw data

Why use this tool?

• For survey design, reserve selection and potential mapping of rare and common species.5

Who will use this tool?

• Data users
  • Expert
• Special skills required

How will the tool be used?

• DOMAIN algorithm is used as a species prediction tool within DIVA-GIS Version 5 6
• DOMAIN is used within BioMaps 7
• Desktop application
• User input required

Where in the data chain could this tool be used?

• User’s machine

When could this tool be used?

• As a post process, after data is with the user

Availability

DOMAIN is available through DIVA-GIS version 5

• DIVA-GIS: http://www.diva-gis.org/
• Command line version AVID-GIS: http://www.diva-gis.org/avid.htm
• Download: http://www.diva-gis.org/down.asp registration is voluntary
• Documentation: http://www.diva-gis.org/Materials.htm
• Manual: http://www.diva-gis.org/docs/DIVA-GIS5_manual.pdf
•  
• Cost: free
• Licence: GNU General Public License (GPL)

Comments

Comparisons of several modelling methods including DOMAIN are available:

Tsoar, Asaf; Allouche, Omri; Steinitz, Ofer; Rotem, Dotan; Kadmon, Ronen (2007) A comparative evaluation of presence-only methods for modelling species distribution Diversity & Distributions 13, 397-405(9).8

available at: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/toc/ddi/13/4

Jane Elith, Catherine H. Graham, Robert P. Anderson, Miroslav Dudı’k, Simon Ferrier, Antoine Guisan, Robert J. Hijmans, Falk Huettmann, John R. Leathwick, Anthony Lehmann, Jin Li, Lucia G. Lohmann, Bette A. Loiselle, Glenn Manion, Craig Moritz, Miguel Nakamura, Yoshinori Nakazawa, Jacob McC. Overton, A. Townsend Peterson, Steven J. Phillips, Karen Richardson, Ricardo Scachetti-Pereira, Robert E. Schapire, Jorge Sobero'n, Stephen Williams, Mary S. Wisz and Niklaus E. Zimmermann (2006) Novel methods improve prediction of species’ distributions from occurrence data Ecography 29: 129-151.

available at: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/toc/eco/29/2

Pilar A Hernandez, Catherine H Graham, Lawrence L Master, Deborah L Albert (2006) The effect of sample size and species characteristics on performance of different species distribution modeling methods Ecography, 29, No. 5. (October 2006), 773-785. available at: http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/toc/eco/29/5