McDonald Data Sciences Blog

Blogging R and environmental statistics topics

Rdistance v4.0.3 on CRAN now

Major overhaul of distance analysis package Rdistance is on CRAN

R

Distance Analysis

The latest Rdistance, version 4.0.3, is on CRAN now. This version of Rdistance is a major overhaul and improvement in the workflow in R. Among other things, the changes in…

Aleutian Tern Surveys Begin

2024 Aleutian tern surveys in southern Alaska begin today.

Projects

Aleutian terns

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and I are happy to announce initiation of the 2024 Aleutian tern surveys.

finFindR: Top 10 ‘Most Cited’ Marine Mammal Science Papers

Fin matching paper among top 10 most cited articles in Marine Mammal Science during 2022 and 2023

Marine Mammals

Image Recognition

Wiley reported today that our paper, finFindR: Automated recognition and identification of marine mammal dorsal fins using residual convolutional neural networks, is one of…

Zoom To Point

Center native R plots of spatial objects on a point, and use a specified zoom level

R

Spatial

Native R plots (using plot) are quick and easy ways to check spatial objects. Native R plots, however, are static and changing the plot extent (zooming or panning) is not…

Double Observer Surveys: Post 1

Full Independence and Equal Sightability

R

Distance Analysis

Double-observer line-transect surveys estimate the abundance of targets (e.g., targets could be birds, bears, bats, bees, etc.) in an area. Double-observer line-transect…

Extracting Tracks from KML

GPS tracks from KML via XML

R

Spatial

XML

R is amazing at geospatial analysis. Most geospatial objects import easily. Some objects from some formats do not. This post is about importing a GPS track from the Keyhole…

Permutation Tests

Nearly bomb-proof tests for arbitrary distributions and measurements

R

Computer Intensive

Permutation tests are powerful, almost bomb-proof, multi-sample statistical tests. Permutation tests are not widely taught, and most internet pages on the subject are…

Rdistance is back on CRAN

Distance analysis package Rdistance is back on CRAN after an extended hiatus

R

Distance Analysis

Rdistance, a package for line and point transect distance analysis, is back on CRAN after a 2-year hiatus. Rdistance has always been available on Github. Now, it passes all…

Mirrored Histograms

R

Mirrored histograms are excellent for comparison of proportions. Proportion comparison is at the heart of habitat analysis and I use them often.

Package Initiation

Steps to create an empty package

R

R Packages are awesome. Here, I show you how to initiate a clean new package. Why I initiate things this way is beyond the scope of this post. A more complete description of…