Vincent Miele

We propose a novel statistical model, called ELGRIN (in reference to Charles Elton and Joseph Grinnell) that can handle the effects of both environmental factors and known interspecific interactions (aka a metanetwork) on species distributions. We rely on Markov random fields to handle dependencies between variables using a graph. More specifically, ELGRIN jointly models the presence and absence of all species in a given area in function of environmental covariates and the topological structure of the known metanetwork. It separates the interspecific interaction effects from those of the environment on species distributions.
Using various simulated and empirical data, we demonstrate the suitability of ELGRIN to address the objectives for various types of interspecific interactions like mutualism, competition and trophic interactions. We then apply the model on vertebrate trophic networks in the European Alps.