Coefficient shifts in geographical ecology: an empirical evaluation of spatial and non‐spatial regression

Abstract:

A major focus of geographical ecology and macroecology is to understand the causes of spatially structured ecological patterns. However, achieving this understanding can be complicated when using multiple regression, because the relative importance of explanatory variables, as measured by regression coefficients, can shift depending on whether spatially explicit or non‐spatial modeling is used. However, the extent to which coefficients may shift and why shifts occur are unclear. Here, we analyze the relationship between environmental pbkp_redictors and the geographical distribution of species richness, body size, range size and abundance in 97 multi‐factorial data sets. Our goal was to compare standardized partial regression coefficients of non‐spatial ordinary least squares regressions (i.e. models fitted using ordinary least squares without taking autocorrelation into account; “OLS models” hereafter) and eight …

Año de publicación:

2009

Keywords:

Fuente:

google