plantae

Overview

The plantae dataset contains plant diversity metrics for 662 global ecoregions, derived from 244M+ GBIF plant presence records and a large set of environmental predictors (see plantae_predictors).

Its main features are:

• Complete case study: No missing values, clean data ready for analysis.
• Global scope: All major biomes and biogeographic realms.
• Multiple responses: 53 response variables (see plantae_responses) covering richness, rarity, and beta diversity.
• Large number of predictors: The 84 predictors (see plantae_predictors) span 12 categories (temperature, precipitation, atmospheric, soil, fragmentation, human impact, and more).

Setup

The following R libraries and example data are required to run this tutorial.

library(dplyr)
library(sf)
library(mapview)
library(units)
library(viridis)
library(collinear)
library(spatialRF)
library(spatialData)

data(
  plantae,
  plantae_responses,
  plantae_predictors,
  package = "spatialData"
  )

colors_richness <- viridis::rocket(
    n = 10,
    direction = -1
  )

Description

The dataset is an sf POINT data frame (EPSG 4326) with 662 rows and 143 columns, and no missing data. The first 10 records and all columns but geometry are shown below.

plantae |>
  head(n = 10) |>
  dplyr::glimpse()
#> Rows: 10
#> Columns: 143
#> $ ecoregion_id                             <dbl> 473, 193, 298, 613, 99, 805, …
#> $ ecoregion_name                           <chr> "Japurá-Solimões-Negro moist …
#> $ ecoregion_biome                          <chr> "Tropical & Subtropical Moist…
#> $ ecoregion_realm                          <chr> "Neotropic", "Australasia", "…
#> $ ecoregion_continent                      <chr> "Americas", "Oceania", "Euras…
#> $ richness_species                         <int> 4835, 2197, 1336, 4360, 2271,…
#> $ richness_genera                          <int> 1231, 650, 769, 1452, 795, 14…
#> $ richness_families                        <int> 203, 132, 180, 234, 164, 201,…
#> $ richness_classes                         <int> 6, 5, 7, 6, 4, 8, 5, 6, 5, 6
#> $ richness_species_trees                   <int> 2448, 166, 436, 1364, 729, 48…
#> $ richness_genera_trees                    <int> 577, 55, 268, 552, 303, 227, …
#> $ richness_families_trees                  <int> 112, 32, 72, 120, 89, 74, 10,…
#> $ richness_species_grasses                 <int> 112, 221, 43, 286, 141, 401, …
#> $ richness_genera_grasses                  <int> 50, 67, 35, 91, 55, 123, 42, …
#> $ rarity_weighted_richness_species         <dbl> 426.27763, 269.42868, 97.6067…
#> $ rarity_weighted_richness_genera          <dbl> 30.43368, 15.10900, 10.17875,…
#> $ rarity_weighted_richness_species_trees   <dbl> 217.008423, 17.151178, 23.930…
#> $ rarity_weighted_richness_genera_trees    <dbl> 17.6373842, 1.3127927, 4.0111…
#> $ rarity_weighted_richness_species_grasses <dbl> 5.648815, 22.025660, 3.102633…
#> $ rarity_weighted_richness_genera_grasses  <dbl> 0.8883361, 1.0822623, 0.27355…
#> $ mean_rarity_species                      <dbl> 0.08816497, 0.12263481, 0.073…
#> $ mean_rarity_genera                       <dbl> 0.024722726, 0.023244614, 0.0…
#> $ mean_rarity_species_trees                <dbl> 0.08864723, 0.10332035, 0.054…
#> $ mean_rarity_genera_trees                 <dbl> 0.030567390, 0.023868958, 0.0…
#> $ mean_rarity_species_grasses              <dbl> 0.05043585, 0.09966362, 0.072…
#> $ mean_rarity_genera_grasses               <dbl> 0.017766722, 0.016153169, 0.0…
#> $ betadiversity_R_species                  <int> 9498, 11004, 1997, 19412, 854…
#> $ betadiversity_R_percent_species          <dbl> 64.86819, 83.04906, 55.41065,…
#> $ betadiversity_R_genera                   <int> 826, 1925, 641, 1884, 1005, 4…
#> $ betadiversity_R_percent_genera           <dbl> 39.57834, 74.58349, 43.39878,…
#> $ betadiversity_R_families                 <int> 51, 166, 51, 102, 98, 35, 58,…
#> $ betadiversity_R_percent_families         <dbl> 20.07874, 55.70470, 21.61017,…
#> $ betadiversity_R_species_trees            <int> 3591, 2389, 467, 4341, 2382, …
#> $ betadiversity_R_percent_species_trees    <dbl> 58.49487, 93.46635, 47.84836,…
#> $ betadiversity_R_genera_trees             <int> 328, 555, 184, 581, 298, 49, …
#> $ betadiversity_R_percent_genera_trees     <dbl> 35.96491, 90.98361, 38.41336,…
#> $ betadiversity_R_families_trees           <int> 25, 94, 34, 57, 39, 16, 27, 2…
#> $ betadiversity_R_percent_families_trees   <dbl> 18.11594, 74.60317, 32.07547,…
#> $ betadiversity_R_species_grasses          <int> 336, 744, 145, 737, 363, 331,…
#> $ betadiversity_R_percent_species_grasses  <dbl> 73.84615, 76.85950, 73.60406,…
#> $ betadiversity_R_genera_grasses           <int> 48, 133, 55, 99, 88, 38, 47, …
#> $ betadiversity_R_percent_genera_grasses   <dbl> 48.48485, 66.50000, 59.78261,…
#> $ betadiversity_sorensen_species           <dbl> 0.5277546, 0.7210027, 0.54379…
#> $ betadiversity_sorensen_genera            <dbl> 0.2694647, 0.6006202, 0.35566…
#> $ betadiversity_sorensen_families          <dbl> 0.11159737, 0.38604651, 0.148…
#> $ betadiversity_sorensen_species_trees     <dbl> 0.4470242, 0.8787211, 0.45998…
#> $ betadiversity_sorensen_genera_trees      <dbl> 0.2307692, 0.8345865, 0.33055…
#> $ betadiversity_sorensen_families_trees    <dbl> 0.10843373, 0.59493671, 0.191…
#> $ betadiversity_sorensen_species_grasses   <dbl> 0.6250000, 0.6323777, 0.70562…
#> $ betadiversity_sorensen_genera_grasses    <dbl> 0.3378378, 0.4981273, 0.47200…
#> $ betadiversity_simpson_species            <dbl> 0.06390900, 0.02230314, 0.202…
#> $ betadiversity_simpson_genera             <dbl> 0.024370431, 0.009230769, 0.0…
#> $ betadiversity_simpson_families           <dbl> 0.000000000, 0.000000000, 0.0…
#> $ betadiversity_simpson_species_trees      <dbl> 0.041275031, 0.006024096, 0.1…
#> $ betadiversity_simpson_genera_trees       <dbl> 0.012131716, 0.000000000, 0.1…
#> $ betadiversity_simpson_families_trees     <dbl> 0.008928571, 0.000000000, 0.0…
#> $ betadiversity_simpson_species_grasses    <dbl> 0.06250000, 0.01357466, 0.209…
#> $ betadiversity_simpson_genera_grasses     <dbl> 0.02000000, 0.00000000, 0.057…
#> $ bias_log_records                         <dbl> 9.881395, 12.170088, 8.815815…
#> $ geo_neighbors_count                      <int> 10, 3, 6, 13, 3, 4, 8, 4, 5, 4
#> $ geo_neighbors_area_km2                   <int> 2005112, 761733, 499488, 7202…
#> $ geo_neighbors_aridity_mean               <dbl> -0.9563798, 0.5657846, -0.273…
#> $ geo_area_km2                             <int> 268347, 11940, 81922, 24929, …
#> $ geo_polygons_count                       <int> 2, 7, 1, 43, 1, 1, 1, 6, 1, 1
#> $ geo_perimeter_km                         <int> 8567, 3563, 1987, 8303, 1623,…
#> $ geo_shared_perimeter_km                  <int> 8459, 3528, 1987, 4979, 904, …
#> $ geo_shared_perimeter_fraction            <dbl> 0.99, 0.99, 1.00, 0.60, 0.56,…
#> $ geo_distance_to_ocean                    <int> 9367, 1174, 1409, 85, 358, 50…
#> $ geo_elevation_mean                       <dbl> 86.016377, 1300.268070, 477.2…
#> $ human_population                         <int> 1897238, 2450, 46472620, 1135…
#> $ human_population_density                 <dbl> 7.0675297, 0.1987217, 567.254…
#> $ human_footprint_mean                     <dbl> 0.4305056, 2.5179189, 19.3168…
#> $ climate_velocity_lgm_mean                <dbl> 7.6806232, 0.8897423, 2.43905…
#> $ climate_hypervolume                      <dbl> 0.022396502, 0.012212734, 0.0…
#> $ landcover_bare_percent_mean              <dbl> 0.10334276, 0.28396785, 6.818…
#> $ landcover_herbs_percent_mean             <dbl> 16.22373, 28.57396, 81.62750,…
#> $ landcover_trees_percent_mean             <dbl> 80.99299, 70.83879, 11.30655,…
#> $ fragmentation_ai                         <dbl> 98.23654, 74.69482, 99.02252,…
#> $ fragmentation_area_mn                    <dbl> 3388500.00, 21289.66, 8200800…
#> $ fragmentation_ca                         <dbl> 27108000, 1234800, 8200800, 2…
#> $ fragmentation_clumpy                     <dbl> 0.9753594, 0.6897991, 0.98618…
#> $ fragmentation_cohesion                   <dbl> 99.81169, 96.55357, 99.67810,…
#> $ fragmentation_contig_mn                  <dbl> 0.3938724, 0.1382791, 0.98054…
#> $ fragmentation_core_mn                    <dbl> 3185850.000, 10000.000, 77924…
#> $ fragmentation_cpland                     <dbl> 26.7325362, 8.6536166, 27.793…
#> $ fragmentation_dcore_mn                   <dbl> 1.8750000, 0.7586207, 1.00000…
#> $ fragmentation_division                   <dbl> 0.9195281, 0.9882589, 0.91444…
#> $ fragmentation_ed                         <dbl> 0.12164884, 0.98143948, 0.096…
#> $ fragmentation_lsi                        <dbl> 5.573765, 14.812548, 2.392006…
#> $ fragmentation_mesh                       <dbl> 7672193.128, 78693.459, 23987…
#> $ fragmentation_ndca                       <int> 15, 44, 1, 122, 3, 7, 2, 6, 2…
#> $ fragmentation_nlsi                       <dbl> 42.98268, 543.03662, 33.63983…
#> $ fragmentation_np                         <int> 8, 58, 1, 126, 3, 1, 2, 6, 1,…
#> $ fragmentation_shape_mn                   <dbl> 1.801587, 1.678439, 2.392006,…
#> $ fragmentation_tca                        <dbl> 25486800, 580000, 7792400, 11…
#> $ fragmentation_te                         <dbl> 11598000, 6578000, 2692000, 1…
#> $ air_humidity_max                         <dbl> 73.55356, 66.91849, 63.06462,…
#> $ air_humidity_mean                        <dbl> 71.62155, 60.41771, 57.23757,…
#> $ air_humidity_min                         <dbl> 69.86486, 54.90084, 50.29069,…
#> $ air_humidity_range                       <dbl> 3.215996, 11.534526, 12.25825…
#> $ aridity_mean                             <dbl> 2.2031174, 1.2921102, 0.51042…
#> $ cloud_cover_max                          <dbl> 71.63208, 53.53228, 70.77399,…
#> $ cloud_cover_mean                         <dbl> 57.23377, 39.98402, 42.42303,…
#> $ cloud_cover_min                          <dbl> 40.902202, 29.684742, 14.4396…
#> $ cloud_cover_range                        <dbl> 30.21841, 23.36135, 55.84739,…
#> $ evapotranspiration_max                   <dbl> 135.4485, 155.6613, 185.5662,…
#> $ evapotranspiration_mean                  <dbl> 114.07073, 83.18569, 151.0150…
#> $ evapotranspiration_min                   <dbl> 91.826448, 25.519873, 116.057…
#> $ evapotranspiration_range                 <dbl> 43.12295, 129.64771, 69.01481…
#> $ precipitation_seasonality                <dbl> 27.33326, 22.15575, 77.16738,…
#> $ precipitation_total                      <dbl> 2953.3259, 1131.5263, 854.425…
#> $ precipitation_coldest_quarter            <dbl> 836.69665, 358.70920, 167.813…
#> $ precipitation_driest_month               <dbl> 158.361408, 61.908393, 7.3857…
#> $ precipitation_driest_quarter             <dbl> 507.18217, 200.21909, 36.5709…
#> $ precipitation_warmest_quarter            <dbl> 562.74768, 230.81961, 165.048…
#> $ precipitation_wettest_month              <dbl> 363.2224, 129.9431, 182.6952,…
#> $ precipitation_wettest_quarter            <dbl> 1015.6067, 368.3444, 438.6092…
#> $ temperature_isothermality                <dbl> 76.99648, 40.23496, 55.37760,…
#> $ temperature_mean_daily_range             <dbl> 5.816152, 8.847707, 9.680353,…
#> $ temperature_mean                         <dbl> 25.0341507, 7.4928180, 25.648…
#> $ temperature_range                        <dbl> 7.676869, 22.356158, 17.68530…
#> $ temperature_seasonality                  <dbl> 42.41023, 476.58344, 201.1696…
#> $ temperature_coldest_month                <dbl> 21.438079, -1.379348, 16.7388…
#> $ temperature_coldest_quarter              <dbl> 24.483276, 1.468820, 22.97271…
#> $ temperature_driest_quarter               <dbl> 25.293351, 10.979521, 24.8094…
#> $ temperature_warmest_month                <dbl> 29.66041, 20.53516, 34.85455,…
#> $ temperature_warmest_quarter              <dbl> 25.57681, 13.64903, 28.34105,…
#> $ temperature_wettest_quarter              <dbl> 24.788659, 3.620998, 24.89750…
#> $ soil_clay                                <dbl> 27.04603, 20.25723, 32.27310,…
#> $ soil_nitrogen                            <dbl> 1.5610697, 2.8912605, 1.19533…
#> $ soil_organic_carbon                      <dbl> 22.83940, 66.46767, 14.38392,…
#> $ soil_ph                                  <dbl> 4.328191, 5.281891, 6.858474,…
#> $ soil_sand                                <dbl> 38.61876, 55.87067, 39.68722,…
#> $ soil_silt                                <dbl> 32.98165, 22.52010, 26.68605,…
#> $ soil_temperature_max                     <dbl> 28.72042, 22.68232, 39.01643,…
#> $ soil_temperature_mean                    <dbl> 24.7056713, 9.2987020, 27.748…
#> $ soil_temperature_min                     <dbl> 20.84371617, -0.07568503, 18.…
#> $ soil_temperature_range                   <dbl> 7.340125, 22.637208, 20.05041…
#> $ ndvi_max                                 <dbl> 0.7685034, 0.6779593, 0.58250…
#> $ ndvi_mean                                <dbl> 0.6823738, 0.6013160, 0.42989…
#> $ ndvi_min                                 <dbl> 0.5827225, 0.4948931, 0.32135…
#> $ ndvi_range                               <dbl> 0.1857809, 0.1830662, 0.26115…
#> $ geometry                                 <POINT [°]> POINT (-65.45348 -0.9548852),…

Please check the documentation of plantae with help(plantae) to learn more about its responses and predictors.

The map below represents total plant richness (column richness_species).

mapview::mapview(
  plantae |> 
    dplyr::select(
      ecoregion_name,
      ecoregion_biome,
      ecoregion_realm,
      richness_species
    ),
  zcol = "richness_species",
  layer.name = "Species richness",
  col.regions = colors_richness,
  cex = sqrt(plantae$richness_species)/10
)

A much larger version of plantae with the original ecoregion geometries instead of point centroids can be downloaded with plantae_extra().

plantae_polygons <- spatialData::plantae_extra()
#> spatialData::plantae_extra(): Downloading file 'plantae.gpkg'.

mapview::mapview(
  plantae_polygons |> 
    dplyr::select(
      ecoregion_name,
      ecoregion_biome,
      ecoregion_realm,
      richness_species
    ),
  zcol = "richness_species",
  layer.name = "Species richness",
  col.regions = colors_richness
  )

Smaller subsets filtered by hemisphere with richness_species as the only response variable are also available via [plantae_west] (Americas) and [plantae_east] (Old World).

nrow(plantae_west)
#> [1] 228
nrow(plantae_east)
#> [1] 434

Response Variables

The dataset provides 53 response variables (see plantae_responses) across 6 categories:

Category	Count	Description
Richness	9	Species, genus, family, and class counts for all plants, trees, and grasses
Rarity-weighted richness	6	Sum of inverse presence-record counts per taxon (Williams et al. 1996)
Mean rarity	6	Mean of inverse presence-record counts per taxon
Beta diversity (raw turnover)	16	Absolute richness differences between ecoregion and neighbors
Beta diversity (Sorensen)	8	Sorensen dissimilarity (Bsor = 1 - 2a/(2a+b+c); Koleff et al. 2003)
Beta diversity (Simpson)	8	Simpson dissimilarity (Bsim = min(b,c)/(min(b,c)+a); Koleff et al. 2003)

Predictor Variables

The dataset includes 84 predictor variables from 12 categories.

Category	Count	Prefix
Sampling bias	1	bias_log_records
Geographic/geometric	10	geo_*
Human impact	3	human_*
Climate	34	climate_*, precipitation_*, air_*, aridity_*, cloud_*, evapotranspiration_*, temperature_*
Landcover	3	landcover_*
Fragmentation	19	fragmentation_*
Soil	10	soil_*clay*, soil_temperature_*
NDVI	4	ndvi_*

#> Warning in rm(plantae_west, plantae_east): object 'plantae_west' not found
#> Warning in rm(plantae_west, plantae_east): object 'plantae_east' not found

Known Issues

Several significant ecoregions are missing from plantae:

• Western Ecuador moist forests
• Ecuadorian dry forests
• Northwest Andean montane forests
• Eastern Cordillera Real montane forests
• Tumbes-Piura dry forests
• Sechura desert
• Isthmian-Pacific moist forests (several patches missing)
• Jamaican moist forests
• Puerto Rican moist forests
• Veracruz dry forests
• Sierra de la Laguna dry forests
• Northern Mesoamerican Pacific mangroves
• Santa Lucia Montane Chaparral & Woodlands
• Cyprus Mediterranean forests
• Crete Mediterranean forests
• Kalaallit Nunaat Arctic steppe
• Buru rain forests
• Banda Sea Islands moist deciduous forests
• Fiji tropical dry forests

There are no plans to bring them to the dataset.

Example Usage

In this example we use plantae to identify the predictors driving plant richness across the World’s ecoregions.

• Multicollinearity Analysis: aims to limit redundancy in the predictors and focus on the most promising ones.
• Spatial Autocorrelation Analysis: to help understand the importance of the spatial structure of the data.
• Spatial Modelling: training of a spatial Random Forest models fitted with spatialRF.
• Model Analysis: to assess the relative importance of the spatial versus the environmental predictors, and understand how plant richness responds to environmental gradients.

Multicollinearity Analysis

The plantae dataset has 84 predictors with varying levels of redundancy. To manage multicollinearity in plantae we use collinear::collinear(). The function prioritizes the predictors in preference_order as requested by the user, while the remaining ones are ranked by the R-squared of univariate random forest models fitted against the response. The predictors are then evaluated one by one for selection following this ranking: if the variance inflation factor of the candidate predictor against the selected predictors is lower than 2.5, the predictor is added to the selection. Otherwise it is ignored, and the next predictor is evaluated.

plantae_selection <- collinear::collinear(
  df = plantae,
  responses = "richness_species",
  predictors = plantae_predictors,
  f = collinear::f_count_rf,
  preference_order = c(
    "bias_log_records", #logarithm of the GBIF records used to compute richness
    "geo_area_km2", #ecoregion area
    "climate_velocity_lgm_mean", #climate stability since Last Glacial Maximum
    "climate_hypervolume", #relative size of the ecoregion's climate envelope
    "temperature_mean", #mean temperature
    "precipitation_total", #total rainfall
    "human_footprint_mean", #average human footprint in the ecoregion
    "human_population_density" #inhabitants per square kilometer
  ),
  max_vif = 2.5,
  quiet = TRUE
)

The function returns a list full of useful data, but here we focus on the character vector with the selected predictor names.

plantae_selection$richness_species$selection
#>  [1] "bias_log_records"             "geo_area_km2"                
#>  [3] "climate_velocity_lgm_mean"    "climate_hypervolume"         
#>  [5] "temperature_mean"             "precipitation_total"         
#>  [7] "human_footprint_mean"         "human_population_density"    
#>  [9] "fragmentation_dcore_mn"       "human_population"            
#> [11] "landcover_herbs_percent_mean" "fragmentation_shape_mn"      
#> [13] "geo_neighbors_count"          "fragmentation_ed"            
#> [15] "fragmentation_division"       "geo_perimeter_km"            
#> [17] "soil_sand"                    "geo_neighbors_area_km2"      
#> [19] "fragmentation_contig_mn"      "geo_elevation_mean"          
#> [21] "cloud_cover_range"            "fragmentation_cohesion"      
#> [23] "precipitation_seasonality"    "geo_distance_to_ocean"       
#> attr(,"validated")
#> [1] TRUE

Spatial Autocorrelation Analysis

The spatial autocorrelation (SAC) analysis of the response and the selected predictors requires a distance matrix between all pairs of ecoregions.

Something to take in mind: The distance between ecoregions may vary depending on the geometry used in the computation. The distance between neighboring ecoregions will be zero when using the polygons resulting from plantae_extra(), while they will be larger than zero when using the point geometry (ecoregion’s centroid) in spatialData::plantae.

The code below uses the ecoregion centroids in spatialData::plantae to compute the distance matrix in kilometers.

plantae_distance <- sf::st_distance(
  x = plantae
) |> 
  units::set_units(value = "km") |> 
  units::drop_units() |> 
  floor()

plantae_distance[1:5, 1:5]
#>       [,1]  [,2]  [,3]  [,4]  [,5]
#> [1,]     0 14610 15776  3358 12011
#> [2,] 14610     0  9068 14138  9480
#> [3,] 15776  9068     0 16377  5361
#> [4,]  3358 14138 16377     0 15220
#> [5,] 12011  9480  5361 15220     0

This distance matrix is required to assess the SAC of any variable in plantae. The code below analyzes SAC for the response and all predictors at once for a range of neighborhood distances between 100 and 8000 km.

plantae_distances_km <- c(100, 1000, 2000, 4000, 8000)

spatialRF::plot_training_df_moran(
  data = plantae,
  dependent.variable.name = "richness_species",
  predictor.variable.names = plantae_selection$richness_species$selection,
  distance.matrix = plantae_distance,
  distance.thresholds = plantae_distances_km
)

Notice how the autocorrelation of most predictors peaks at 1000 km, and remains positive for most of them across the entire distance span. This analysis suggests that the data has a strong spatial structure we need to account for.

Let’s first train a non-spatial model to confirm that spatial structure is a problem. The code below trains a non-spatial random forest model via spatialRF::rf() and assessing the spatial autocorrelation of the residuals.

plantae_rf <- spatialRF::rf(
  data = sf::st_drop_geometry(plantae),
  dependent.variable.name = "richness_species",
  predictor.variable.names = plantae_selection$richness_species$selection,
  distance.matrix = plantae_distance,
  distance.thresholds = c(100, 1000, 2000),
  verbose = FALSE
)

The model has a good performance on the out-of-bag data (RMSE = 1527.11; R-squared = 0.69), as most random forest models do, but let’s take a look at the SAC of the model residuals.

spatialRF::moran_multithreshold(
  x = plantae_rf$residuals$values,
  distance.matrix = plantae_distance,
  distance.thresholds = plantae_distances_km,
  verbose = FALSE
)$plot

The SAC of the residuals peaks at ~1000km and remains positive over long distances, indicating that this model is missing predictors accounting for the spatial structure of the data.

Spatial Modelling

The function spatialRF::rf_spatial() takes the model above, adds spatial predictors (namely Moran’s Eigenvector Maps or MEMs) to the training data.

MEMs are synthetic predictors derived from the distance matrix. Each MEM captures a distinct spatial pattern at a different scale, from broad continental gradients to finer regional structures. By selecting the MEMs that reduce residual SAC the most, spatialRF::rf_spatial() captures spatial variation in plant richness that the environmental predictors alone cannot explain. Think of biogeographic legacies, dispersal barriers, or unknown environmental gradients.

Since we used distance.thresholds = c(100, 1000, 2000) in the non-spatial model plantae_rf, the function spatialRF::rf_spatial() will generate and select spatial predictors for the neighborhood distances 100, 1000, and 2000 km. We selected these distances in the non-spatial model because most of the SAC of the model residuals is centered around these values, and generating MEMs for these distances mitigates SAC the most.

This model will take a little while to train because it selects the smaller subset of spatial predictors that minimizes the spatial autocorrelation of the residuals the most.

plantae_rf_spatial <- spatialRF::rf_spatial(
  model = plantae_rf,
  verbose = FALSE
)

The spatial model has a performance very similar to the non-spatial one (RMSE = 1512.18; R-squared = 0.7).

Now, let’s take a look at the SAC of the model residuals.

spatialRF::moran_multithreshold(
  x = plantae_rf_spatial$residuals$values,
  distance.matrix = plantae_distance,
  distance.thresholds = plantae_distances_km,
  verbose = FALSE
)$plot

Notice the values in the vertical axis: the SAC of the model residuals is still significant for the distance thresholds 1000 and 2000km, but it is an order of magnitude smaller than in the non-spatial model (from about Moran’s I ~2.7 in the non-spatial model to ~0.05 in the spatial one). Otherwise, the Moran’s I for distances 4000 km and beyond are non-significant now.

Model Analysis

The figure below shows how model error increases when a given predictor is randomly shuffled. Higher values indicate stronger predictive relevance.

spatialRF::plot_importance(
  model = plantae_rf_spatial
)

The high importance of bias_log_records reflects the extent to which ecoregions with more records tend to have higher observed richness, independent of true biodiversity.

Once sampling bias is taken into account, there are several spatial_predictors (MEMs) with high relative importance, reflecting processes operating at different spatial scales that no single environmental variable can fully capture.

Once spatial structure is considered, four predictors remain more important than all others: + geo_perimeter_km and geo_area_km2 represent the importance of the contact surface with other ecoregions and the total ecoregion size. + climate_hypervolume represents the relative size of the climate space in the ecoregion. + human_population indicates the importance of the human factor on plant species richness.

Let’s take a look at the response curves for these predictors when all other predictors are set to their median (quantile 0.5).

spatialRF::plot_response_curves(
  model = plantae_rf_spatial,
  variables = c(
    "geo_perimeter_km", 
    "geo_area_km2", 
    "climate_hypervolume", 
    "human_population"
    ),
  quantiles = 0.5
)

In the context of a spatial model with MEMs, these curves represent the environmental component of richness after bias and spatial structure are accounted for. This means the relationships shown reflect genuine environmental gradients rather than geographic clustering artefacts, making them more interpretable than those from a non-spatial model.

Conclusion

The spatial modelling example above shows one of many potential applications of the plantae dataset. Given its 53 response variables, including rarity-weighted richness and beta diversity among others, this dataset supports a much wider range of ecological modelling experiments, from unsupervised clustering to define biomes to structural equation modelling to disect indirect relationships between geography, the environment, and plant diversity.

References

Maestre, F.T., Benito, B.M., Berdugo, M., et al. (2021). Biogeography of global drylands. New Phytologist, 231(2), 540–558. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.17395