A curated list of R packages for ecological niche modelling

Abstract

The R language provides most applications (packages) currently available for ecological niche modelling. In the last few years, these packages have increased substantially. There are now numerous packages for computing ecological niche models (ENMs) with different algorithms, comparing species niches and niche models, creating virtual species, getting and preparing species and related environmental data, filtering species records, and evaluating models, amongst other tasks. This profusion of package options may be daunting for both beginners and more experienced R users. Here we provide an organised and annotated list of available packages for each task. We present a concise history of the creation of these packages, we briefly describe what each package does, and we discuss whether the current set of R packages covers all the necessities for modelling species’ ecological niches. This list will be accessible and updated over time on a dedicated website.