Probability of Presence - Terrestrial Species
As a first step toward a predictive model of hotspots of species richness based on the predictive variables outlined above, the probabilities of each group within each grid cell were summed (excluding fish which do not occur at all in the Central Appalachians, making predictions impossible). The probabilities were summed to indicate locations that have one or more of the species groupings. Higher values indicate that more species
are likely to be found.
For the five terrestrial groups, the major hotspot is in northeast Alabama and south central Tennessee, mimicking the observed data. However, there are also hotspots in southwest Virginia, and central West Virginia that do not appear on the map of species richness.
