openModeller is an ecological niche modelling library, providing a uniform method to model species distribution patterns with a variety of algorithms.

It is our great pleasure to announce the immediate availability of openModeller Desktop Version 1.0.6 openModeller is a generic framework for carrying out fundamental niche modelling experiments - typically used to predict species distribution given a set of environmental raster layers. The openModeller Desktop application builds on the openModeller library by providing a user friendly graphical user interface for carrying out niche modelling experiments.

This release introduces several new features including:

• Improved mapping capabilities - you can now specify occurrence symbol size and colour, and overlay a context layer (such as country boundaries) on your output map.
• Experiments run in their own thread.- this makes for a more responsive user interface and you can look at completed models whilst the experiment is still running.
• Web Service modelling improvements - improvement have been made to allow better job progress reporting when running as a web sevice.
• Absence modelling is now supported - previous versions of openModellerDesktop did not handle absence data properly so absence modelling was not available.
• GBIF Rest Data Fetcher (work sponsored by GBIF with our thanks!) - it is now possible to retrieve occurrence data using the new GIF Rest query service. The data fetcher has also had various cosmetic and useability improvements, and now functions as a wizard.
• New algorithms - openModeller Desktop now ships with two new algorithms (Support Vector Machines and Bioclim Score).
• Thresholding tool - you can now compute 'hotspot' models showing the predicted species count per cell by aggregating many model outputs into a single raster file. The threshold tool can also be used for 'concensus' modelling where many algorithms are used for a single species and all the resulting probability distribution maps are combined to provide a map indicating where most algorithms are in agreement that a species will ocurr at a given cell.

The release also includes numerous  improvements, bug fixes and stability improvements. openModeller Desktop is available in source form, and as binary executables for Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, and Ubuntu 7.10 GNU/Linux. All versions can be obtained from our download page. As an open source project, we provide support for using openModeller via our mailing lists and bug tracker:

• For general enquiries subscribe to our users mailing list.
• For developer related enquiries subscribe to our separate developers list.
• If you think you have found a bug, please report it using our bug tracker. When reporting bugs, please include some contact information in case we need help with replicating your issue.

Known Issues:

• The threshold tool can crash with large datasets, this will be addressed in next release.