Ecological niche modeling of Phyllodactylus microphyllus applied to ecotourism development in the Lomas de Ancon Reserved Zone

Abstract

The aim of this study was to study the potential territorial distribution (ecological niche modeling) of the species Phyllodactylus microphyllus and its application to ecotourism. For the methodology of the independent variable, ecological niche modeling, the Maxent program (free program) was used, which requires two patterns of information, the first is the geospatial location of the sighting of the species and the second is raster images of physical and bioclimatic factors of the study area. For the dependent variable, which is ecotourism, interviews and surveys were conducted with visitors of the protected area. As a main result, the modeling of the ecological niche Phyllodactylus microphyllus used physical and bioclimatic information that according to Maxent shows that the omission curve of the entered data is below the prediction line, meaning that the data are not independent in the dry month and for the wet month this curve in the training sample is in the fraction of 0. 6 above the prediction curve, showing that there was a good use of the raster data, obtaining that the niche is shifted from north to south near the coast and in the wet month this distribution is extended to the east. In conclusion, ecological niche modeling is a tool that allows modeling environmental and physical conditions, which contribute to decision-making in the management of ecotourism activities, which are related to conservation, research and education.