Climate change is leading to changes in physical site conditions of species all over the planet, and Slovenia is no exception. Science tries to address the question of how climate change could affect ecological niches by using multiple niche modelling techniques, Maxent being one of them. In this BA thesis, Maxent is used to predict the climate change impact on Slovenian forests by the end of the 21st century. Forests are split into 13 forest vegetation types based on their common ecological needs. Two shared socioeconomic pathway scenarios are used, optimistic SSP1-2,6 and pessimistic SSP5-8,5. Analyses of ecological niche area changes, distances of vectors between centroids of today’s areals and future ecological niches, and common spatial changes are carried out. Additionally, changes in elevation zones of forest vegetation types are studied. Based on the results, Maxent proves itself to be a useful tool for the aim of this thesis. There are visible trends of gradual prevalence of thermophilic forest vegetation type and moving of forest vegetation types from lower to higher altitudes.
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