Hawaiian Islands habitat suitability models for highly invasive plants based on global and regional data for baseline climate scenario (1990-2009)

We created a comprehensive estimate of potential distribution for a subset of 17 ecosystem modifying invasive plants (EMIPs) in Hawaiʻi. This work uses methods that integrate a wide set of data sources including agency and citizen science data, but perhaps more importantly, the integration of regional and global distribution information for these species. We built three sets of ensemble species distribution models (SDMs) for each species. We first built global and regional ensemble distribution models for each species. Then, to create a comprehensive estimate of potential invasive species distribution for our study species in Hawaiʻi, we built nested regional models that integrate our global and regional ensemble models. This approach and the resulting mapped distributions are the most comprehensive to date for Hawaiian invasive plants and can possibly be applied more broadly to other species in the future. These models are available as both habitat suitability maps with pixel values ranging from 0 (low suitability) to 1 (high suitability); and as binary maps that separate areas of potential presence (1) from those where presence is not expected (0) based on the environmental predictors considered.