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In this workshop, participants will use the ALA (Atlas of Living Australia) and the BCCVL (Biodiversity and Climate Change Virtual Laboratory) to explore species data and ecological models to understand the relationships between species and their environment.

These tools can be used in research, but also provide a great educational resource to introduce students to the concepts of data discovery and ecological modelling. The workshop is therefore aimed at post-graduate research students, researchers, and academics that are interested in implementing these tools in their undergraduate courses.

In the first half of this workshop participants will use the ALA Spatial Portal to learn about key features, data quality issues, cleaning data and environmental layers. They will then be introduced to the basic elements of species distribution models and climate change projections, including the data required to run the models, the differences across various model algorithms and how to appropriately interpret and evaluate the results of model outputs.

Using the BCCVL, workshop participants will access national datasets to run a species distribution model and then project the results into the future using a climate change projection with a number of different emission scenarios.

No complex coding/statistical knowledge is required. Just bring your laptop, and we'll provide access to a wealth of data and modelling tools.

All welcome. Registration is free.