Assessment of Potential Distribution of <I>Dipterocarpus turbinatus</I> C.f. Gaertn in Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary of Darjeeling District, North Bengal through MaxEnt Model

Abstract

The prospective application of ecological niche modeling can be seen in this study, which maps the potential distribution of Dipterocarpus turbinatus , one of the indigenous tree species in the Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary. This study has also tested the efficiency of the MaxEnt model whether it has given accurate and précised result about the species distribution. In study area Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary, Data was collected for multiple sample points at different location using GPS of the target species namely Dipterocarpus turbinatus (Garjan) over the entire Mahananda Wildlife Sanctuary area. The South-Western region of the study area has shown the higher potential, followed by the South-Eastern and Northern region. The prediction ranges from 0 to 1, 0 suggesting no potential for the occurrence and 1 shows high potential for the occurrence of the Dipterocarpus turbinatus . The North-Western region followed by Eastern region has shown the minimum support for the distribution of the Dipterocarpus turbinatus . Potential distribution of the Dipterocarpus turbinatus was predicted by MaxEnt model which involved multiple predictor variables like bioclimatic variables, elevation, slope, soil, LULC, and human influence index, where the maximum contribution of elevation was 39.1% having 14.2 % followed by Human Influence Index and soil 12.7% contribution respectively.