changeRangeR: An R package for reproducible biodiversity change metrics from species distribution estimates

Abstract

Abstract Conservation planning and decision‐making rely on evaluations of biodiversity status and threats that are based upon species' distribution estimates. However, gaps exist regarding automated tools to delineate species' current ranges from distribution estimates and use those estimates to calculate both species‐ and community‐level biodiversity metrics. Here, we introduce changeRangeR, an R package that facilitates workflows to reproducibly transform estimates of species' distributions into metrics relevant for conservation. For example, by combining predictions from species distribution models (SDMs) with other maps of environmental data (e.g., suitable forest cover), researchers can characterize the proportion of a species' range that is under protection, metrics used under the IUCN Criteria A and B guidelines (Area of Occupancy and Extent of Occurrence), and other more general metrics such as taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity and endemism. Further, changeRangeR facilitates temporal comparisons among biodiversity metrics to inform efforts toward complementarity and consideration of future scenarios in conservation decisions. changeRangeR also provides tools to determine the effects of modeling decisions through sensitivity tests. Transparent and repeatable workflows for calculating biodiversity change metrics from SDMs such as those provided by changeRangeR are essential to inform conservation decision‐making efforts and represent key extensions for SDM methodology and associated metadata documentation.

Keywords

• area of occupancy
• conservation biogeography
• endemism
• extent of occurrence
• niche model
• range