R/threatdemog.R

In Defenders-ESC/threatdemog: Analysis of Threat and Demography Scoring Manuscript

#' Analysis of threat and demography scores for imperiled species.
#'
#' 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 \code{threatdemog} package encapsulates the data and analysis of the
#' project introduced above. A preprint of the work can be found at
#' \url{https://peerj.com/preprints/1860/}; we will update this documentation
#' when the final paper is published.
#'
"_PACKAGE"