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Step 2: Choosing a biome scheme

Goal

Step 1 gave us occurrence records and the 31 biome schemes. With 31 schemes to choose from, this step picks the one that best fits your data, so the choice is explicit and reproducible rather than defaulting to a familiar scheme.

Terms. A biome scheme is one of the 31 classification systems; a biome class is a category within it; a biome scheme number (1-31) identifies a scheme. The scheme_type argument groups schemes by methodology.


1. Rank the schemes for your data

biomes_rank() scores every scheme for your occurrences and proposes a single best-fitting scheme. Each scheme is rated on three complementary, data-driven criteria:

The three criteria are min-max scaled to [0, 1] and averaged (equal weights) into a composite score. The best-scoring scheme is returned in attr(ranking, "best_scheme").

ranking <- biomes_rank(biomes_example, verbose = FALSE)
best    <- attr(ranking, "best_scheme")
best
head(ranking)

The result is a data frame with one row per scheme; the key columns are scheme (the biome scheme number), scheme_name, composite_score and is_best.

Rank within a conceptually comparable group

Comparing schemes of different methodologies can mislead, so restrict the ranking to one group with scheme_type:

r_veg <- biomes_rank(biomes_example, scheme_type = "vegetation", verbose = FALSE)
attr(r_veg, "best_scheme")

table(biomes_information$scheme_type)   # how many schemes per group

scheme_type = "all" (the default) ranks all 31 schemes. Other groups are "climate", "vegetation", "land_cover", "ecoregion", "integrative" and "anthropogenic".


2. Inspect the ranking

The rank panel of biomes_visualise() shows the composite score per scheme with the best scheme highlighted:

biomes_visualise(biomes_example, panels = "rank")

Treat the ranking as a shortlist, not an authoritative answer: the most suitable scheme ultimately depends on your research question. Inspect the criterion-specific columns of the ranking and use biomes_info() to pick the scheme whose concept and resolution match your data.

The integer in attr(ranking, "best_scheme") is exactly the biome scheme number you pass as scheme to the classification and visualisation functions next.


These binaries (installable software) and packages are in development.
They may not be fully stable and should be used with caution. We make no claims about them.
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