Ecological niche modelling of Cantharellus species in Benin, and revision of their conservation status

Of the eight Cantharellus species known from Benin, seven have been encountered under similar macroecological conditions. The present work attempts to generate a more complete distribution of these seven species. Fortyeight occurrences of the target species and four explanatory variables including three bioclimatic variables and a land cover variable were used to build an ensemble model from five modelling approaches under the Biomod2 package of R software. Results showed a distribution restricted to the Bassila and Atacora mountain range phytogeographic districts with excellent statistical performance (TSS = 0.98, AUC = 0.99). This distribution is governed mainly by high soil moisture and high potential evapotranspiration, thus defining only gallery forests as the most suitable habitat for chanterelles in Sudano-guinean and Soudanese ecozones of Benin. Based on IUCN criterion B1 and sub-criteria B1a and B1c(i), these seven species were categorized under the Endangered (EN) threat category according to our results.

Automated summary

This study investigates the distribution of seven Cantharellus species in Benin to better understand their habitats. By building a model, it was found that these species are mainly distributed in the gallery forests of the Bassila and Atacora mountain ranges, influenced by factors such as soil moisture and potential evapotranspiration. According to the research results, these seven species were classified as Endangered threat category.