Validation of CanopySat Bioclimatic Envelope Assessment (BEA) for Forest Species Climate Suitability — Comparison Against Published MaxEnt Studies across 5 Global Biomes

This report validates the CanopySat Bioclimatic Envelope Assessment (BEA) methodology for predicting forest species climate suitability under 2050 climate projections (SSP2-4.5). BEA results across five global biomes (tropical Amazon, tropical Congo, temperate Black Forest, tropical SE Asia Borneo, boreal Canada) are compared against published MaxEnt species distribution models. Results show 5/5 zones consistent with MaxEnt general trends. Climate projections use a 5-model CMIP6 ensemble (ACCESS-CM2, MIROC6, MPI-ESM1-2-HR, GFDL-ESM4, BCC-CSM2-MR) under SSP2-4.5. Species occurrence data sourced from GBIF (CC BY 4.0). The BEA method provides directional trends consistent with MaxEnt at global scale, suitable for rapid assessment applications such as REDD+ monitoring.