Climate Suitability Modelling of Miracle Tree Moringa oleifera Distribution in Pakistan using MaxEnt

Climate change has badly affected many countries in the world and Pakistan is being listed among the top ten of those countries. Pakistan is facing many adverse consequences due to climate change, which includes food security issues, water scarcity, temperature rise and high air pollution index. Moringa oleifera, known to be the miracle tree, has multiple advantages and can be used to combat global warming. The geographical suitability of sites for different plant species is diversified by temperature and precipitation variations. With the intention of forecasting the effects of climate change and the suitability of the land for growing M. oleifera in Pakistan, this study employed the MaxEnt Model which is based on the maximum entropy technique. Two Representatives Concentration Pathways (RCP) 4.5 and 8.5 will be used to predict highly suitable areas, moderately suitable areas and the areas which are least suitable for M.oleifera in the year 2070, from five General Circulation Models (GCM). The findings of this study reveal a boost in highly suitable areas of future distribution from 9% of the current distribution to 28.31% and 36.67% in RCP-4.5 and RCP-8.5 respectively. This shows that this tree can withstand adverse environmental conditions and it should be planted in abundant quantities everywhere, considering its multiple ecologi-cal and medicinal uses