Digital Data in Biodiversity Research Conference

Surrogate species can be used to predict distributions where data on target species are limited or difficult-to-obtain. We examined if historical museum records of three crayfish species which exhibit the same burrowing behavior, similar habitat associations, and sympatric ranges could be used as surrogate species in ecological niche models (ENMs) to predict habitat suitability for each other. Further, we examined if a supraspecific ENM trained on the historical presences of all three species could successfully predict habitat suitability for burrowing crayfish in Missouri, USA. Taxonomic revisions, subterranean lifestyles, and a paucity of distributional data on burrowing crayfish currently limit biologists from confidently determining the ranges of species and geographic areas of conservation importance. We discuss how digital data, museum specimens, and current statistical methods can assist with the conservation of cryptic and undersampled species.