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Species distribution models (SDMs) have become increasingly popular for making ecological inferences, as well as predictions to inform conservation and management. In predictive modeling, practitioners often use correlative SDMs that only evaluate a single spatial scale and do not account for differences in life stages. These modeling decisions may limit the performance of SDMs beyond the study region or sampling period. Given the increasing desire to develop transferable SDMs, a robust framework is necessary that can account for known challenges of model transferability. Here, we propose a comparative framework to develop transferable SDMs, which was tested using satellite telemetry data from green turtles (CheloniaChelonia mydas). This framework is characterized by a set of steps comparing among different models based on (1) model algorithm (e.g., generalized linear model vs. Gaussian process regression) and formulation (e.g., correlative model vs. hybrid model), (2) spatial scale, and (3) accounting for life stage. SDMs were fitted as resource selection functions and trained on data from the Gulf of Mexico with bathymetric depth, net primary productivity, and sea surface temperature as covariates. Independent validation datasets from Brazil and Qatar were used to assess model transferability. A correlative SDM using a hierarchical Gaussian process regression (HGPR) algorithm exhibited greater transferability than a hybrid SDM using HGPR, as well as correlative and hybrid forms of hierarchical generalized linear models. Additionally, models that evaluated habitat selection at the finest spatial scale and that did not account for life stage proved to be the most transferable in this study. The comparative framework presented here may be applied to a variety of species, ecological datasets (e.g., presence‐only, presence‐absence, mark‐recapture), and modeling frameworks (e.g., resource selection functions, step selection functions, occupancy models) to generate transferable predictions of species–habitat associations. We expect that SDM predictions resulting from this comparative framework will be more informative management tools and may be used to more accurately assess climate change impacts on a wide array of taxa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject loggerhead appeared to dominate the smaller green and Kemp's ridley turtles (e.g., biting at rear flippers), whereas the larger loggerhead dominated the subject loggerhead (Schofield et al., [14]). Keywords: animal-borne video; competition; Gulf of Mexico; loggerhead; niche; sea turtle EN animal-borne video competition Gulf of Mexico loggerhead niche sea turtle 1 5 5 01/04/23 20230101 NES 230101 The competitive exclusion principle states that ecologically similar species sharing a niche cannot occupy the same space at the same time (Gause, [5]). The larger loggerhead's aggressive behavior toward the subject loggerhead, but apparently not toward the green turtles and Kemp's ridley turtles, might reflect an intraspecific response (Dujon et al., [2]; Schofield et al., [15]). [Extracted from the article]