Efficacy of species distribution models (SDMs) for ecological realms to ascertain biological conservation and practices

SDMs are not new to conservation, but their popularity has increased dramatically in recent years. This step-by-step review provides an overview of the efficacy of SDMs in guiding restoration and conservation strategies across a wide range of ecological realms. Numerous studies have demonstrated the applicability of SDMs to various fields; however, their effectiveness has not been evaluated for a variety of ecosystems. Therefore, a survey and analysis of published work on the use of SDM in ecological rejuvenation and conservation from 2002 to 2023 (May) is conducted. The analysis found a total of 739 papers and the number of papers increased after 2016. The United States of America (135) had the most SDM implementations in conservation planning, followed by China (59), Australia (40), and other nations, according to the classification of the research area by country. In the model, Maxent (341) and in the areas, Forest (252) outperformed contenders for the number of papers published. This review will create a framework to aid in the following: (1) information about taxa and realms in need of protection, (2) selection of the best SDM approach according to study aim, focused species, and study area, and (3) supplemental techniques useful for better SDM output. In addition, it will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of various fundamental SDM algorithms in the context of ecological conservation. Graphical Abstract