Data to create and evaluate distribution models for invasive species for different geographic extents

We developed habitat suitability models for invasive plant species selected by Department of Interior land management agencies. We applied the modeling workflow developed in Young et al. 2020 to species not included in the original case studies. Our methodology balanced trade-offs between developing highly customized models for a few species versus fitting non-specific and generic models for numerous species. We developed a national library of environmental variables known to physiologically limit plant distributions (Engelstad et al. 2022 Table S1: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0263056) and relied on human input based on natural history knowledge to further narrow the variable set for each species before developing habitat suitability models. We developed models using five algorithms with VisTrails: Software for Assisted Habitat Modeling [SAHM 2.1.2]. We accounted for uncertainty related to sampling bias by using two alternative sources of background samples, and constructed model ensembles using the 10 models for each species (five algorithms by two background methods) for three different thresholds (conservative to targeted). The mergedDataset_regionalization.csv file contains predictor values associated with pixels underlying each presence and background point. The testStripPoints_regionalization.csv file contains the locations of the modeled species occurring in the different geographic test strips.