Although virtual events aren’t a perfect replacement for in-person engagement, they are still a useful way to share and communicate ideas. So, we are pleased to offer the IPRRG Webinar Series!
The presentations, which cover an array of topics related to pest risk modelling and analysis, are first done via live webcast. The time slots for each webinar will vary to best accommodate the speakers. Since January 2022, we have been using Zoom (via Luma) for the live webcast. *Each webcast can be accessed at the scheduled time using the LIVE WEBCAST LINK in the table below.* A big red “JOIN” button should appear on the event page an hour before it starts. Anyone can access the webcast via this link (i.e., you don’t have to be an IPRRG member to attend the webinar). However, we encourage you to follow the link now and register in advance! This is an easy way to have the webinar added to your calendar and get reminders. Itwill also let us know who’s planning to attend.
Afterward, a recorded version of the webinar will be available indefinitely from the IPRRG YouTube channel. Links to each of the YouTube recordings are provided in the table, or you can visit our channel to see all of them.
We are excited to provide this opportunity to the pest risk community! Please feel free to share the news (and the URL for this page) widely. Our goal is have a large audience for each of our presenters.
If you have any questions or are interested in presenting your own webinar, please contact Frank Koch, IPRRG Chair (frank.h.koch “AT” usda.gov).
Upcoming Webinars
10
January2024
Validating standardized Mahalanobis distance as a species distribution model for invasive alien species Joseph Stinziano, Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)Species distribution models (SDMs) can be used to identify areas of climatic suitability for invasive alien species under present and future climate conditions. However these models face issues including correlations between climate variables and results that are not often validated. We have implemented a standardized multivariate distance metric as an SDM, allowing for the rapid production of climate suitability maps with reliability metrics. This approach characterizes the observed multivariate climate envelope by taking advantage of the correlation between climate variables, and identifies areas where the climate is outside the range of the observed climate envelope. We include built-in metrics of reliability, including measures of variation across climate models. Model outputs include climate suitability maps, measures of variability, and most important covariates, to assess model reliability and underlying environmental drivers of the results. Using a list of 9 species from CFIA’s regulated pest list, we demonstrate that this method achieves a high level of accuracy (> 80%) for determining climate suitability for North American plant pest invasions. This suggests that the model is suitable for identifying areas of North America that are susceptible to future invasions. We show that many of the errors occur at the edge of climate suitable areas, where we would expect greater uncertainty in model predictions due to potential over-constraining and geospatial averaging. This standardized multivariate distance model can be used to assess the potential area for invasion by a plant pest in minimal time (< 1 hr) with minimal data (standard bioclimatic variables and species presence data).
