Benchmarking the estimation of optimal spatial resolution fro biodiversity studies on Ebro region data

Abstract

The structure and density of plant census data determines the spatial resolution at which we can assess spatial changes in biodiversity. We proposed a pipeline to determine the optimal resolution for biodiversity analysis. We used plant occurrence data for the Ebro Region and generated ~ 6000 resolutions (from 1 to 55,561 km2). We applied piecewise regression to determine the threshold at which the area-to-species slope starts to level off. We were able to select 6 optimal resolutions (~1,124 km2) that balance spatial detail and data reliability. This approach provides a robust framework for determining spatial resolution that enhance biodiversity studies, ensuring and optimal trade-off between detail and record availability in the study region.