Posts

We recently published a review paper on 58 R packages created to process or analyze tracking data. However, R packages are dynamic, new packages are created, old packages get updated and some even disappear or get deprecated due to lack of maintenance. For that reason, we created a CRAN Task View (CTV) on tracking packages.

In this new post from the sftraj series, we now present a detailed conceptual model for movement, from the basic location to a complete trajectory. Essentially, this is the logics behind sftraj.

“There is a raccoon that looks stuck on the gate… his head is stuck in a can… Any chance you know what to do in this situation? (pic attached).” Talk about a weird email to receive first thing in the morning, coffee in hand, as I arrived at the UF Fort Lauderdale Research and Education Center, in Davie, FL. Curious, I opened the attachment to see what appears to be a young raccoon hanging on for dear life at the top of a chain-link fence with an aluminum soup can firmly stuck around its head like a Halloween costume gone wrong.

We now have a problem, a team, and use cases to consider for our sftraj package. In order to be relevant, we also need to know what does already exist in R, what other projects have attempted to deal with trajectories and tracking data, and what lessons can we learn from this. In this post of the sftraj series, we thus review the state of affairs in the R world.

After introducing the problem and our team in the previous blog post, we now present in this second post of the ‘sftraj’ series a brief overview of the sftraj package as projected, and how we will work to implement it. Most importantly, we also ask your help, and explain how you (developers and users!) can contribute to the success of sftraj.

It is now official, our proposal to the R Consortium to code an R package dedicated to tracking data has been accepted! In this first blog post of the ‘sftraj’ series, we will introduce the problem and the need for such a package, before getting into the nuts and bolts of the proposal.

Increasingly scientists are sharing their code on public repositories like GitHub, SourceForge, and RForge. This sharing necessitates the need for scientists to write readable code with helpful documentation. rOpenSci is a collaborative created to foster better coding in R, including writing a style guide on coding in R and peer-reviewing packages. Scientists should consider adopting these style guides to facilitate better interactions with people using or modifying their code.

On March 30 we hosted our second BioBlitz at Quiet Waters Park. Over 40 people came to this event, and helped us tally over 170 species in the park. We had a lot of surprises including nesting owls, river otters, and tagged butterflies.

In this post you’ll find preliminary results from our movement ecology review.

In this post you’ll find an introduction to our movement ecology review (on the way!) and a survey for movement ecologists.