CONCLUSIONS         Empirical Habitat Models
§Empirical models are only as good as the data that goes into them…
§Marine models are only good for the time and conditions used to build the models…
§ So what’s the point?
§ They allow us to map out relationships we observe in our data and test them objectively
§ They allow us to define stronger hypotheses
§ They allow us to develop better sampling strategies and monitoring plans
§ They allow us to map potential spatial interactions
As we go down the road of these analyses, we have to realize that the models that we generate are only going to be as good as the data that we put into them
That the models we are creating are temporally explicit
The questions addressed with empirical models should be primarily targeted at building better hypotheses not creating predictive maps.
With all of these caveats though, we are excited because we should be able to map out relationships we observe in our data and test them objectively
We will be able to define and test stronger hypotheses
We will be able to develop better sampling strategies and monitoring plans
And we will be able to show spatial interactions between cetaceans and their habitat, which while it sounds pretty basic, is really pretty substantial towards understanding the overall goals that I mentioned at the beginning.
And with that, I am done.
thanks