Interpretation of assigning Habitat affinity

[Dries Lorré]

Hi all,

I have a question regarding the capacity model of Ecospace. Especially about the Habitat affinity and to interpret the inputs.

In essence, you can define habitats for each cell and assign for (all or a subset of) EwE groups a preference value between 0 (no preference) and 1 (optimal preference).

Does this mean that a habitat preference value of 0 translates to a capacity of 0? so foraging arena is set to 0? How to interpret "no preference"?

Some papers for instance assign habitat preference as below:

Does this mean that, for instance, sandeels get a capacity value of 0 in all habitats but sand?

Also, "Near coast" and "marine" are both 0 for sandeels, so in essence, sandeels gets a capacity of 0 in ALL cells (because habitat foraging capacity is a multiplication of multiple environmental and habitat assingments)? Or are the sediment habitats and near-coast / Marine habitats not linked? Or does a preference of 0 not equal a capacity of 0? I find this quite confusing.



How do I interpret these assignments? And how do they link with the capacity model?
It does seem quite fundamental for producing realistic species distributions, so I want to make sure to fully understand this before proceeding.

Thanks!

Dries

[EwE user support]

Hi Dries,

Habitat use and preferences are cumulative; ever sliver of habitat in a cell with a non-zero preference will add to the foraging capacity in a cell. If a species has no preference for a habitat, the habitat preference is assumed 0, and the habitat will not add to the species foraging capacity.

So yes: no pref =>  0 preference => 0 capacity

Jeroen

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