CEAMEC 1.0: a ‘Shiny' application for cost-effective animal management via environmental capacity

Abstract

Managing over-abundant nuisance species in anthropogenic environments typically depends on the removal of individuals, even though theoretical and empirical studies suggest that limiting environmental resources can be more effective. However, quantifying resources to be manipulated in order to achieve a desired reduction in target species can be difficult, which complicates cost estimation for a given management target. We present CEAMEC 1.0 (cost-effective animal management via environmental capacity), a ‘Shiny' application in the HTML user interface (available at) programmed in the R language, as a tool to provide managers with optimal management strategies based on cost estimates of manipulating different environmental resources. Based on user-defined targets and periods of management, CEAMEC calculates an optimal combination and quantity of different resources to be manipulated at the lowest cost to achieve a desired reduction level of a target population. CEAMEC provides stakeholders with a user-friendly decision support tool for integrated management plans targeting nuisance species in man-made environments.