Prediction of Potential Habitat of Monochamus alternatus Based on Shared Socioeconomic Pathway Scenarios

This study predicted the potential habitats of Monochamus alternatus, a known vector of Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, utilizing its occurrence points and environmental variables—ecoclimatic indices and terrain variables. SSP2-4.5 and SSP5-8.5 scenarios were applied to predict the potential habitat under climate change. We secured the 20,514 occurrence points of Monochamus alternatus among the points with geographic coordinates of PWD-affected trees (2017–2022). The maximum entropy model (MaxEnt) and ensemble model (ensemble) were used to identify and compare the variability of potential habitats in the baseline period, near future, intermediate future, and distant future. At the outset, both the MaxEnt and the ensemble models showed a high model fit, and the ensemble was judged to be relatively superior. Next, both models showed that the habitat will expand northward according to climate change scenarios. Finally, the binary maps were superimposed to examine the differences between individual and multiple models; both models showed similar distributions in the baseline period and near future. Nonetheless, MaxEnt tended to overestimate expansion in the intermediate and far future. In the future, it is expected that the accuracy and reliability of forecasts can be improved by building optimized models to reduce uncertainty by supplementing field data and collaborating with model experts.