threatdemog-package: Analysis of threat and demography scores for imperiled...
In Defenders-ESC/threatdemog: Analysis of Threat and Demography Scoring Manuscript

Managers of large wildlife conservation programs need information on the conservation status of each of many species to strategically allocate limited resources. Oversimplified status data, however, runs the risk of missing information essential to strategic allocation. Conservation status consists of two components, the status of threats a species faces and the species' demographic status. Neither component alone is sufficient to characterize conservation status. Here we present a simple key for scoring threat and demographic changes for species using detailed information provided in free-form textual descriptions of conservation status. Importantly, this key applies equally to any taxon and can be used where quantitative trend data for threats or demography is sparse. To evaluate the key's utility, we performed two analyses. First, we scored the threat and demographic status of 37 species recently recommended for reclassification under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) and 15 control species, then compared our scores to two metrics used for decision-making and reports to Congress. Second, we scored the threat and demographic status of all non-plant ESA-listed species from Florida (56 spp.), and evaluated scoring repeatability for a subset of those. The threatdemog package encapsulates the data and analysis of the project introduced above. A preprint of the work can be found at https://peerj.com/preprints/1860/; we will update this documentation when the final paper is published.

Defenders-ESC/threatdemog documentation built on May 6, 2019, 1:58 p.m.