Effects of incorporating spatial autocorrelation into the analysis of species distribution data

ABSTRACT Aim Spatial autocorrelation (SAC) in data, i.e. the higher similarity of closer samples, is a common phenomenon in ecology. SAC is starting to be considered in the analysis of species distribution data, and over the last 10 years several studies have incorporated SAC into statistical models (here termed ‘spatial models’). Here, I address the question of whether incorporating SAC affects estimates of model coefficients and inference from statistical models. Methods I review ecological studies that compare spatial and non‐spatial models. Results In all cases coefficient estimates for environmental correlates of species distributions were affected by SAC, leading to a mis‐estimation of on average c .…