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ARS Home » Plains Area » Las Cruces, New Mexico » Range Management Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #373726
Research Project: Science and Technologies for the Sustainable Management of Western Rangeland Systems

Location: Range Management Research

Title: Terradactyl: an example of modularity and ontologies to ensure the sustainability of open source software

Author
item McCord, Sarah
item Stauffer, Nelson

Submitted to: Society for Range Management Meeting Abstracts
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 12/15/2019
Publication Date: 2/16/2020
Citation: McCord, S.E., Stauffer, N.G. 2020. Terradactyl: an example of modularity and ontologies to ensure the sustainability of open source software [abstract]. Society for Range Management Meeting. February 16-20, 2020. Denver, Colorado.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Data-driven rangeland management relies on the ability to flexibly access monitoring data that is relevant to the multitude of challenges on the nation's rangelands. Terradactyl is an R package with facilitates the modular use and re-use of rangeland monitoring data. Data are first tidyied and organized into a tall format which allows for modular data analysis. These data can then be easily analyzed using a modular range of rangeland indicator calculation function. These functions stack together in a way that is increasingly modular. For instance, the pct_cover() function is the foundation for pct_cover_bare_soil(), pct_cover_species(), so that the same code supports functionally similar indicator calculations. This means that terradactyl can be used to support a range of management questions across many different kinds of monitoring data.