rasterdiv—An Information Theory tailored R package for measuring ecosystem heterogeneity from space: To the origin and back

Rocchini, Duccio [Geological and Environmental Sciences] Thouverai, Elisa [Geological and Environmental Sciences] Marcantonio, Matteo [Czech University of Life Sciences Prague] Iannacito, Martina [University of California] Da Re, Daniele [UCL] Torresani, Michele [Piazza Universitá] Bacaro, Giovanni [University of Trieste] Bazzichetto, Manuele [Université de Rennes] Bernardi, Alessandra [University of Nottingham] Foody, Giles M. [University of Nottingham] Furrer, Reinhard [University of Zurich] Kleijn, David [Wageningen University] Larsen, Stefano [Fondazione Edmund Mach] Lenoir, Jonathan [University of Trento] Malavasi, Marco [Czech University of Life Sciences Prague] Marchetto, Elisa [Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna] Messori, Filippo [Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna] Montaghi, Alessandro [University of Florence] Moudrý, Vítězslav [Czech University of Life Sciences Prague] Naimi, Babak [University of Helsinki] Ricotta, Carlo [University of Rome] Rossini, Micol [Universitá degli Studi Milano-Bicocca,] Santi, Francesco [Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna] Santos, Maria J. [University of Zurich] Schaepman, Michael E. [University of Zurich,] Schneider, Fabian D. [California Institute of Technology] Schuh, Leila [University of Zurich] Silvestri, Sonia [University of Bologna] Ŝímová, Petra [Czech University of Life Sciences Prague] Skidmore, Andrew K. [Macquarie University] Tattoni, Clara [University of Florence,] Tordoni, Enrico [University of Trieste,] Vicario, Saverio [University of Bari] Zannini, Piero [Alma Mater Studiorum University of Bologna,] Wegmann, Martin [University of Wuerzburg,] et al.[show all]

Ecosystem heterogeneity has been widely recognized as a key ecological indicator of several ecological functions, diversity patterns and change, metapopulation dynamics, population connectivity or gene flow. In this paper, we present a new R package—rasterdiv—to calculate heterogeneity indices based on remotely sensed data. We also provide an ecological application at the landscape scale and demonstrate its power in revealing potentially hidden heterogeneity patterns. The rasterdiv package allows calculating multiple indices, robustly rooted in Information Theory, and based on reproducible open-source algorithms.