Use maximum entropy modeling (MaxEnt) and K-mean clustering for analysis of subterranean habitats genus Niphargus in Iran

The amphipods of genus Niphargus Schiödte, 1847 inhabit in subterranean waters and constitute a substantial part of the groundwater biodiversity. In the last decades, there have been many developments for using of modelling algorithms, although not exclusive to the specific case of subterranean habitats. In this study, ecological variables were used to investigate the effect of environmental factors on Niphargus genus distribution. The occurrence points of the genus in north, west and northwest provinces were obtained from previous studies. Then, climatic variables, topography (slope, elevation, and moisture) were used, as well as temperature and moisture data at depths of 0 to 10 cm and 10 to 40 cm. In order to evaluate the similarity between habitat areas, k-mean clustering were used. Then, species distribution modeling was performed using Maximum Entropy Method at the country scale. The results showed that among all the variables used, only Bio14 had no normal distribution (P-value>0/05). Clustering results also showed that, the occurrence points of genus members is placed in two clusters, cluster 1 in the north of Iran and cluster 2 along of Zagros mountain range. There is similarities between two clusters. Two variables include the annual rainfall and soil temperature at depths of 10 to 40 cm have the most effect on the distribution of genus Niphargus. The results also showed that due to distance from the ground surface and the environmental variables, the same conditions exist in most occurrence points of this taxon.