Mapping species distributions: living with uncertainty

news and update ISSN 1948‐6596 commentary Mapping species distributions: living with uncertainty decreases with time because of range changes associated with factors such as climate and land‐ use change, habitat degradation, biological inva‐ sions, etc. Moreover, changes in taxonomic status resulting from reclassifications (Hey et al. 2003) may mean that even if the assemblage remains unchanged, the quality of the information de‐ grades. Thus, the utility and accuracy of informa‐ tion about species occurrences to describe current distributions depends upon when the database is consulted. This process of information decay also applies to data based on expert assessments, such as range maps, which are ultimately based on knowledge coming from surveys and observa‐ tions. Finally, the decay in community similarity with increasing geographic distances is a well known pattern in biogeography (Nekola journal compilation © 2013 The International Biogeography Society