Rcompadre

Rcompadre provides functions to acquire, quality-control, and manage matrix population model (MPM) data from the COMPADRE Plant Matrix Database and the COMADRE Animal Matrix Database—together containing over 12,000 projection matrices for more than 1,100 species—and interfaces with the companion package Rage to calculate life-history traits for demographic analyses.

Key Features:

• Data Acquisition and Management: Functions to acquire, import, perform quality control on, and manage MPMs from COMPADRE, COMADRE, and user-generated datasets.
• Calculation of Life-History Traits: The companion package Rage implements functions to calculate life-history traits derived from MPMs, including metrics based on survival and reproduction across life stages.
• Facilitation of Demographic Analyses: Tools to integrate MPM data management with downstream demographic analyses using projection matrices.
• Improved Replicability: Standardized methods for accessing and analyzing MPM data to promote consistency and replicability across studies.

Scientific Applications:

• Ecological Research: Analysis of species-specific life histories and their implications for conservation and population management.
• Evolutionary Studies: Investigation of how variation in vital rates (survival, reproduction) across life stages influences evolutionary processes across taxa.
• Educational Use: Use of COMPADRE/COMADRE MPM datasets and R functions for teaching demographic concepts through hands-on data analysis.

Methodology:

Functions implement acquisition, import, quality control, and management of MPM data from COMPADRE and COMADRE and compute life-history traits from projection matrices via the companion Rage package.