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PointedSDMs

The goal of PointedSDMs is to simplify the construction of integrated species distribution models (ISDMs) for large collections of heterogeneous data. It does so by building wrapper functions around inlabru, which uses the INLA methodology to estimate a class of latent Gaussian models.

Installation

You can install the development version of PointedSDMs from GitHub with:

# install.packages("devtools")
devtools::install_github("PhilipMostert/PointedSDMs")

or directly through CRAN using:

install.packages('PointedSDMs')

Package functionality

PointedSDMs includes a selection of functions used to streamline the construction of ISDMs as well and perform model cross-validation. The core functions of the package are:

Function nameFunction description
startISDM()Initialize and specify the components used in the integrated model.
startSpecies()Initialize and specify the components used in the multi-species integrated model.
blockedCV()Perform spatial blocked cross-validation.
fitISDM()Estimate and preform inference on the integrated model.
datasetOut()Perform dataset-out cross-validation, which calculates the impact individual datasets have on the full model.

The function intModel() produces an R6 object, and as a result there are various slot functions available to further specify the components of the model. These slot functions include:

intModel() slot functionFunction description
`.$help()`Show documentation for each of the slot functions.
`.$plot()`Used to create a plot of the available data. The output of this function is an object of class gg.
`.$addBias()`Add an additional spatial field to a dataset to account for sampling bias in unstructured datasets.
`.$updateFormula()`Used to update a formula for a process. The idea is to start specify the full model with startISDM(), and then thin components per dataset with this function.
`.$updateComponents()`Change or add new components used by inlabru in the integrated model.
`.$priorsFixed()`Change the specification of the prior distribution for the fixed effects in the model.
`.$specifySpatial()`Specify the spatial field in the model using penalizing complexity (PC) priors.
`.$spatialBlock()`Used to specify how the points are spatially blocked. Spatial cross-validation is subsequently performed using blockedCV().
`.$addSamplers()`Function to add an integration domain for the PO datasets.
`.$specifyRandom()`Specify the priors for the random effects in the model.
`.$changeLink()`Change the link function of a process.

Example

This is a basic example which shows you how to specify and run an integrated model, using three disparate datasets containing locations of the solitary tinamou (Tinamus solitarius).


library(PointedSDMs)
library(ggplot2)
library(terra)

bru_options_set(inla.mode = "experimental")

#Load data in

data("SolitaryTinamou")

projection <- "+proj=longlat +ellps=WGS84"

species <- SolitaryTinamou$datasets

covariates <- terra::rast(system.file('extdata/SolitaryTinamouCovariates.tif', 
                                      package = "PointedSDMs"))

mesh <- SolitaryTinamou$mesh

Setting up the model is done easily with startISDM(), where we specify the required components of the model:


#Specify model -- here we run a model with one spatial covariate and a shared spatial field

model <- startISDM(species, spatialCovariates = covariates,
                 Projection = projection, Mesh = mesh, responsePA = 'Present')

We can also make a quick plot of where the species are located using `.$plot()`:


region <- SolitaryTinamou$region

model$plot(Boundary = FALSE) + 
  geom_sf(data = st_boundary(region))

To improve stability, we specify priors for the intercepts of the model using `.$priorsFixed()`


model$priorsFixed(Effect = 'Intercept',
                  mean.linear = 0, 
                  prec.linear = 1)

And PC priors for the spatial field using `.$specifySpatial()`:


model$specifySpatial(sharedSpatial = TRUE,
                     prior.range = c(0.2, 0.1),
                     prior.sigma = c(0.1, 0.1))

We can then estimate the parameters in the model using the fitISDM() function:


modelRun <- fitISDM(model, options = list(control.inla = 
                                            list(int.strategy = 'eb'), 
                                          safe = TRUE))
summary(modelRun)
#> Summary of 'modISDM' object:
#> 
#> inlabru version: 2.12.0
#> INLA version: 24.06.27
#> 
#> Types of data modelled:
#>                                     
#> eBird                   Present only
#> Parks                Present absence
#> Gbif                    Present only
#> Time used:
#>     Pre = 1.16, Running = 21.3, Post = 0.274, Total = 22.7 
#> Fixed effects:
#>                   mean    sd 0.025quant 0.5quant 0.975quant   mode kld
#> Forest           0.054 0.006      0.042    0.054      0.066  0.054   0
#> NPP              0.000 0.000      0.000    0.000      0.000  0.000   0
#> Altitude        -0.002 0.001     -0.003   -0.002     -0.001 -0.002   0
#> eBird_intercept -5.419 0.435     -6.271   -5.419     -4.567 -5.419   0
#> Parks_intercept -4.783 0.485     -5.734   -4.783     -3.832 -4.783   0
#> Gbif_intercept  -6.128 0.412     -6.936   -6.128     -5.320 -6.128   0
#> 
#> Random effects:
#>   Name     Model
#>     eBird_spatial SPDE2 model
#>    Parks_spatial Copy
#>    Gbif_spatial Copy
#> 
#> Model hyperparameters:
#>                          mean    sd 0.025quant 0.5quant 0.975quant mode
#> Range for eBird_spatial 3.615 0.912      2.460    3.421      5.946 2.92
#> Stdev for eBird_spatial 2.514 0.427      1.924    2.438      3.567 2.21
#> Beta for Parks_spatial  0.137 0.100     -0.043    0.133      0.348 0.11
#> Beta for Gbif_spatial   0.714 0.067      0.585    0.713      0.848 0.71
#> 
#> Deviance Information Criterion (DIC) ...............: 259.79
#> Deviance Information Criterion (DIC, saturated) ....: 253.61
#> Effective number of parameters .....................: -840.82
#> 
#> Watanabe-Akaike information criterion (WAIC) ...: 2441.50
#> Effective number of parameters .................: 686.08
#> 
#> Marginal log-Likelihood:  -1330.87 
#>  is computed 
#> Posterior summaries for the linear predictor and the fitted values are computed
#> (Posterior marginals needs also 'control.compute=list(return.marginals.predictor=TRUE)')

PointedSDMs also includes generic predict and plot functions:


predictions <- predict(modelRun, mesh = mesh,
                       mask = region, 
                       spatial = TRUE,
                       fun = 'linear')

plot(predictions, variable = c('mean', 'sd'))

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Version

Install

install.packages('PointedSDMs')

Monthly Downloads

349

Version

2.1.6

License

GPL (>= 3)

Issues

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Stars

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Maintainer

Philip Mostert

Last Published

August 24th, 2026

Functions in PointedSDMs (2.1.6)

plot.bruSDM_predict

Generic plot function for predict_bru_sdm.
modMarks_predict-class

Export class predict_modMarks
modSpecies_predict-class

Export class predict_modSpecies
modSpecies-class

Export modSpecies class
predict.bruSDM

Generic predict function for bru_SDM objects.
nameChanger

nameChanger: function to change a variable name.
modISDM_predict-class

Export class predict.modISDM
modMarks-class

Export modMarks class
nearestValue

nearestValue: Match species location data to environmental raster layers
print.blockedCV

Print function for blockedCV.
print.bruSDM_predict

Generic print function for bru_sdm_predict.
print.bruSDM

Generic print function for bruSDM.
removeFormula

removeFormula: Function to remove term from a formula.
region

sf object containing the boundary region for solitary tinamouc
print.modMarks

Generic print function for modMarks.
print.modISDM

Generic print function for modISDM.
print.blockedCVpred

Print function for blockedCV.
print.modSpecies

Generic print function for modSpecies.
print.datasetOut

Generic print function for datasetOut.
reduceComps

reduceComps: Reduce the components of the model.
BBA

Dataset of setophaga caerulescens obtained from the Pennsylvania Atlas of Breeding Birds.
bruSDM_predict-class

Export class predict_bru_sdm
data2ENV

data2ENV: function used to move objects from one environment to another.
changeCoords

changeCoords: function used to change coordinate names.
blockedCV

blockedCV: run spatial blocked cross-validation on the integrated model.
intModel

intModel: Function used to initialize the integrated species distribution model.
blockedCV-class

Export class blockedCV
BBS

Dataset of setophaga caerulescens obtained from the North American Breeding Bird survey across Pennsylvania state.
fitISDM

fitISDM: function used to run the integrated model.
SetophagaData

List of all data objects used for the Setophaga vignette.
Koala

Dataset of Eucalyptus globulus (common name: blue gum) sightings collected across the Koala conservation reserve on Phillip island (Australia) between 1993 and 2004. Two marks are considered from this dataset: "koala" which describes the number of koala visits to each tree, and "food" which is some index of the palatability of the leaves.
NLCD_canopy_raster

Raster object containing the canopy cover across Pennsylvania state.
datasetOut

datasetOut: function that removes a dataset out of the main model, and calculates some cross-validation score.
SolitaryTinamou

List of all data objects used for the solitary tinamou vignette.
SolTinCovariates

spatRaster object containing covariate values
BBSColinusVirginianus

Dataset of Colinus Virginianus obtained from the North American Breeding Bird survey across Alabama state.
Parks

data.frame object containing solitary tinamou observations from Parks
elev_raster

Raster object containing the elevation across Pennsylvania state.
Gbif

data.frame object containing solitary tinamou observations from Gbif
makeFormulaComps

makeFormulaComps: function to make components for the covariate and bias Formulas.
blockedCVpred-class

Export class blockedCVpred
checkCoords

checkCoords: function used to check coordinate names.
dataSet

Internal function used to standardize datasets, as well as assign metadata.
dataOrganize

R6 class to assist in reformatting the data to be used in dataSDM.
eBird

data.frame object containing solitary tinamou observations from eBird
bruSDM-class

Export bru_sdm class
makeLhoods

makeLhoods: function to make likelihoods.
modISDM-class

Export modISDM class
checkVar

checkVar: Function used to check variable names.
datasetOut-class

Export class bru_sdm_leave_one_out