nzffdr

nzffdr provides programmatic access, data cleaning, annotation, and visualization workflows for freshwater fish observation records from the New Zealand Freshwater Fish Database (NZFFD) maintained by the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA), containing over 155,000 records, to support ecological and conservation analyses.

Key Features:

• Implementation: Implemented in R for data import, wrangling, analysis, and visualization.
• Direct NZFFD Access: Query and download observation records from the NZFFD within R, including access to over 155,000 NZFFD records.
• Data Cleaning Functions: Functions to clean imported datasets and address common issues such as inconsistencies and missing values.
• Enhanced Data Annotation: Tools to add species names and Department of Conservation (DOC) threat classification status to records.
• Visualization Workflow: Structured workflow for visualizing NZFFD data and producing graphical representations.

Scientific Applications:

• Ecological Research: Enables analysis of freshwater fish observation patterns and community data for ecological studies.
• Conservation Biology: Supports assessment of species status and threats relevant to conservation decision-making.
• Freshwater Ecosystem Studies: Facilitates studies of species distributions and community composition in New Zealand freshwater systems.
• Biodiversity Assessment: Enables compilation and standardization of occurrence records for biodiversity metrics.
• Species Distribution Modeling: Provides cleaned, annotated occurrence data suitable for species distribution and niche modeling workflows.
• Conservation Planning: Supplies occurrence data and threat-status annotations to inform conservation planning and prioritization.

Methodology:

Implemented in R, nzffdr integrates direct NZFFD querying with functions for data wrangling, cleaning, annotation (including DOC threat status), and visualization workflows.