Jorge Soberón

Professor
Ph.D. Imperial College, UK
1345 Jayhawk Boulevard, Dyche Hall, Lawrence, KS 66045-7562
Phone: (785) 864-3897
Fax: (785) 864-5335

Research Interests

I am mainly interested in documenting and understanding large-scale spatial patterns in the biodiversity of terrestrial species. I make extensive use of databases of specimens from scientific collections, or from observations. For the descriptive aspects of my work I use Geographical Information Systems software. For the predictive and analytical questions, I use mathematical models, as well as software specifically designed for niche modeling. I am also very interested in the political and institutional aspects of biodiversity governance. I love working in collaboration and I have published work in collaboration with colleagues in several laboratories in Mexico and the United States.

Current Research

Presently I am working on the mathematical constraints that determine the possible values in the relation between species-richness and endemism, and how this relates to patterns of nestedness in the presence-absence matrices characterizing a biota in a region subdivided by a grid of cells. Results of this research can be applied to the more accurate planning of conservation. I am also very interested in how different niche factors affect species distributions at contrasting scales. I am very intrigued by the details of how, at changing scales, different factors cease to act as variables in equations and become parameters in new equations. This is explored by mathematical modeling, by simulation, and soon, by selecting a model system that will be studied in the field.

Representative Publications

Arita, H. A. Christen, P. Rodríguez & J. Soberón (in press) The presence-absence matrix reloaded: the use and interpretation of range-diversity plots. Ecology Letters.

Soberón, J. 2010. Niche and area of distribution modeling: a population ecology perspective. Ecography 33:1-9

Soberón, J. & J. Sarukhán 2010. Comments on a new mechanism for science-policy transfer and biodiversity governance. Environmental Conservation 36(4):1-3

Menon, S., J. Soberón, X. Li & A. T. Peterson 2010. Preliminary global assessment of terrestrial biodiversity consequences of sea-level rise mediated by climate change. Biodiversity and Conservation 19:1599-1609

Soberón, J. 2010. Commentary on the debate about evaluation of science in Mexico. Interciencia 35(3):159

Peterson, A. T., Knapp, S. Guralnick, R. Soberón, J. Holder, M. T. 2010 The big questions for biodiversity informatics. Systematics and Biodiversity 8(2):159-168

Soberón, J. & M. Nakamura. 2009. Niches and distributional areas: Concepts, methods and assumptions Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA. 106(suppl. 2): 19644-19650

Soberón, J. & T. Peterson. 2009 Monitoring biodiversity loss with primary species-occurrence data: toward national-level indicators for the 2010 Target of the Convention on Biological Diversity Ambio 38(1):29–34

Arita, H. A. Christen, P. Rodriguez and J. Soberón (2008) Species diversity and distribution in presence-absence matrices: mathematical relationships and biological implications American Naturalist 172(4):519–532

Peterson, A. T., M. Papes and J. Soberón (2008) Rethinking the receiver operating characteristic analysis applications in ecological niche modeling Ecological Modeling 213:63–72

Soberón, J. (2007) Grinnellian and Eltonian niches and geographic distributions of species Ecology Letters 10:1115–1123

Soberón, J., R. Jiménez, J. Golubov, and P. Koleff. 2007. Assessing completeness of biodiversity databases at different spatial scales. Ecography, 30:152–160

Lira-Noriega, A., J. Soberón, A. G. Navarro-Sigüenza, Y. Nakazawa, and A. T. Peterson. 2007. Scale-dependency of diversity components estimated from primary biodiversity data and distribution maps. Diversity and Distributions, 13:185–195

Ceballos, G., P. Ehrlich, J. Soberón, I. Salazar, and J. P. Fay. 2005. Global mammal conservation: What we must manage? Science, 309:603–607.

Soberón, J., and A. T. Peterson. 2005. Interpretation of models of fundamental ecological niches and species' distributional areas. Biodiversity Informatics, 2:1–10

Peterson, A. T., J. Soberón, and V. Sánchez-Cordero. 1999. Conservatism of ecological niches in evolutionary time. Science, 285:1265–1267.