Using habitat suitability models for multiscale forensic geolocation analysis

Abstract

AbstractPollen is one of the most durable environmental materials that law enforcement agencies recover as trace evidence from people and objects. Although links between objects and geographic locations are essential during legal investigations, the approach of using pollen and other microbial fingerprints to build these links in an analytical framework is still underutilized. This study uses bees as objects that are mobile and collects environmental traces as a test case to determine the efficacy of predictive geolocation efforts with recovered pollen and species distribution models at both subcontinental and global scales. Results demonstrate promising performance in both the predictive capability of species distribution models and identification of possible location history of bees at both study extents. When coupling pollen with other categories of evidentiary items, this geographic attribution framework can aid law enforcement personnel in refining investigation priorities and optimizing search strategies.