mobsim_app -- Simulation and visualization of biodiversity patterns across spatial scales using the mobsim R-package

Authors

Katharina Gerstner, Felix May

Description

This is an interactive tool that aims to simulate and visualize multiple biodiversity patterns across spatial scales using the mobsim R-package. A Thomas model is used to simulate point pattern distributions of individual species. Key parameters of the simulation are:

• total number of individuals,
• total number of species,
• the coefficient of variation in the species-abundance distribution that determines the eveness of the abundances,
• spatial aggregation of species.

The tool

1. simulates locations of individuals of different species in a location (plot, area);
2. plots biodiversity patterns such as

• species-abundance distributions (SAD) using Preston octave plot and rank-abundance curve,
• spatial distribution of individuals within a unit area,
• species accummulation curves (SAC), species-area relationships (SAR), and the distance-decay curve.

Run the app on the web

The app is hosted at the following url: https://github.com/MoBiodiv/mobsim_app

Run the app locally

The app can be run locally. Several R packages are required for locally hosting the app, these can be installed from the R terminal:

install.packages(c('shiny', 'shinyBS', 'devtools'))
library(devtools)
install_github('mobiodiv/mobsim')

Once those dependencies are installed you can run the app from the R terminal using:

library(shiny)  
runGitHub("mobiodiv/mobsim_app")

License

GNU GPL