2.2. Species Occurrence Localities
The primary vegetation map ofZ. spina-christi andZ. nummularia was sourced from the Iran Research Institute of
Forest and Rangeland (IRIFR) from 1988 to 2016. This map served as the
foundation for delineating the spatial distribution of these two species
and identifying their respective presence locations. Comprehensive field
surveys were conducted from October 2021 to April 2022 to gather
information on the presence locations of both Z. spina-christiand Z. nummularia . The efforts acquired 419 presence locations
for Z. spina-christi and 161 presence locations for Z.
nummularia .
To mitigate spatial autocorrelation and prevent model overfitting, a
spatial filter with a radius of 1 kilometer was applied, utilizing the
SDM Toolbox as described by Mahmoodi et al. in 2022. Additionally, the
global Moran’s I statistic was computed, following the methodology
outlined by Dormann et al. in 2007, using ArcGIS software (version
10.8.1). Subsequently, a refined dataset consisting of 348 presence
locations for Z. spina-christi and 130 presence locations forZ. nummularia was used to construct the climate niche models for
these species (see Fig. 1).