Planning conservation actions requires detailed information on species’ geographic distribution. Species distribution data are most needed in areas hosting unique or endangered biodiversity. Italy is one of the European countries with the highest levels of herpetological diversity and endemism and is home to several threatened species of amphibians and reptiles. Information on the distribution of species’ habitats can help identify sites where the species is most likely to thrive, as viable populations depend on it. Area of Habitat (AOH) maps reveal the distribution of the habitat available to the species within their geographic range. We produced high resolution, freely accessible global area of habitat maps for 60 species of reptiles and amphibians distributed in Italy, which represent 60% of all Italian amphibian and reptile species. We validated a total of 44 AOH maps through a presence-only based evaluation method, with 86% of these maps showing a performance better than expected by chance. AOH maps can be used as a reference for conservation planning, as well as to investigate macroecological patterns of Italian herpetofauna. Furthermore, AOH maps can help monitoring habitat loss, which is known to be a major threat to many reptile and amphibian species in Europe.

中文翻译：

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意大利两栖动物和爬行动物的栖息地地图

 规划保护行动需要有关物种地理分布的详细信息。拥有独特或濒危生物多样性的地区最需要物种分布数据。意大利是爬行动物多样性和特有性最高的欧洲国家之一，是几种受威胁的两栖动物和爬行动物物种的家园。关于物种栖息地分布的信息可以帮助确定物种最有可能繁衍生息的地点，因为可行的种群依赖于它。栖息地面积 (AOH) 地图揭示了物种在其地理范围内可用的栖息地分布。我们为分布在意大利的 60 种爬行动物和两栖动物制作了高分辨率、可免费访问的全球栖息地地图，这些物种占意大利所有两栖动物和爬行动物物种的 60%。我们通过仅基于存在的评估方法验证了总共 44 个 AOH 地图，其中 86% 的地图显示出比偶然预期更好的性能。AOH 地图可用作保护规划的参考，以及调查意大利爬虫的宏观生态模式。此外，AOH 地图可以帮助监测栖息地的丧失，众所周知，这对欧洲的许多爬行动物和两栖动物物种构成重大威胁。