Open-source tools in R for landscape ecology

Maximillian H.K. Hesselbarth; Jakub Nowosad; Johannes Signer; Laura J. Graham

doi:10.1007/s40823-021-00067-y

Open-source tools in R for landscape ecology

Maximillian H.K. Hesselbarth, Jakub Nowosad, Johannes Signer, Laura J. Graham

Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

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Abstract

Purpose of Review: Landscape ecology, the study of the complex interactions between landscapes and ecological processes, has hugely benefited from the increase in widely available open-source software in recent years. In particular, the R programming language provides a wealth of community developed tools for landscape ecology.

Recent Findings: In this paper, we examine existing packages for downloading, processing and visualisation of spatial data, as well as those specifically developed for spatial ecological analysis. Additionally, we outline the results of a survey of R users within the landscape ecology community.

Summary: We found that landscape ecologists are generally satisfied with the functionality available within R, and that as a community they are continually further developing the functionality available. Suggested future developments include improvement of computation performance; additional methods for landscape characterisation such as surface metrics; and advanced, accessible visualisation tools.

Original language	English
Journal	Current Landscape Ecology Reports
Early online date	22 Jun 2021
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/s40823-021-00067-y
Publication status	E-pub ahead of print - 22 Jun 2021

Keywords

Spatial data
Statistical programming language
R packages
Reproducibility
Scientific software

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10.1007/s40823-021-00067-yLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC BY)

HesselbarthM2021OpensourceFinal published version, 1.02 MBLicence: Creative Commons: Attribution (CC BY)

Cite this

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title = "Open-source tools in R for landscape ecology",

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AU - Hesselbarth, Maximillian H.K.

AU - Nowosad, Jakub

AU - Signer, Johannes

AU - Graham, Laura J.

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AB - Purpose of Review: Landscape ecology, the study of the complex interactions between landscapes and ecological processes, has hugely benefited from the increase in widely available open-source software in recent years. In particular, the R programming language provides a wealth of community developed tools for landscape ecology.Recent Findings: In this paper, we examine existing packages for downloading, processing and visualisation of spatial data, as well as those specifically developed for spatial ecological analysis. Additionally, we outline the results of a survey of R users within the landscape ecology community.Summary: We found that landscape ecologists are generally satisfied with the functionality available within R, and that as a community they are continually further developing the functionality available. Suggested future developments include improvement of computation performance; additional methods for landscape characterisation such as surface metrics; and advanced, accessible visualisation tools.

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KW - Statistical programming language

KW - R packages

KW - Reproducibility

KW - Scientific software

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M3 - Article

JO - Current Landscape Ecology Reports

JF - Current Landscape Ecology Reports

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Open-source tools in R for landscape ecology

Abstract

Keywords

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