Modeling Climate Resilient Planting Locations of Culturally Significant Plants for Musqueam on the University of British Columbia's Vancouver Campus

Specifically, it identified future habitat suitability and optimal planting locations for culturally significant plants of the Musqueam people on the University of British Columbia Vancouver campus. To achieve this, the study combined iNaturalist occurrence data, future climate projections from ClimateBC, and local environmental variables derived from light detection and ranging within a MaxEnt modeling framework. The analysis focused on two species: Salmonberry (Rubus spectabilis) and Sword Fern (Polystichum munitum), evaluating their suitability under different climate scenarios.

The resulting suitability maps highlighted optimal planting locations based on projected climate conditions and environmental factors such as slope, aspect, and shade. Shade emerged as the most influential variable across all models, contributing between 74% and 92%. Other environmental variables had a limited effect on model outcomes, likely due to the study’s small geographic scope.

Overall, the model outputs aligned closely with the known ecological preferences of the studied species. These findings can inform climate-resilient planting strategies for culturally significant species in urban greenspaces.