gbif.range

An R package to generate species range maps based on ecoregions and a user-friendly GBIF wrapper.
https://github.com/8ginette8/gbif.range

Category: Biosphere
Sub Category: Biodiversity Data Access and Management

Keywords

accepted-names ecoregions environmental-classification filtering flags gbif-api hard-limit iucn-red-list large-scale macroecology r-package range-maps species-distribution species-observations synonyms taxonomy

Keywords from Contributors

occurrence-records iucn

Last synced: about 13 hours ago
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Repository metadata

An R package to generate ecologically-informed species range maps from occurrence data with seamless GBIF integration

README.md

gbif.range

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Mapping species distribution mostly relies on expert ranges (for example, IUCN and EUFORGEN) or predictive modeling. However, expert maps remain unavailable for many rare and regional species, while modelling workflows require advanced technical expertise and highly accurate, spatially continuous occurrence data that often demand intensive error-cleaning. The gbif.range R package overcomes these limitations by providing a user-friendly, integrated workflow to generate ecologically informed range maps from sparse observations using environmental clustering and convex hulls.

To streamline data acquisition, gbif.range handles synonym-aware Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) downloads and uses dynamic geographic tiling to bypass GBIF's 100,000 record API limit without credentials. The package also automates data curation via 13 custom and configurable CoordinateCleaner filters, and constrains estimated ranges using built-in or custom terrestrial, marine, and freshwater ecoregion layers to prevent over-prediction into non-viable habitats. For large-scale workflows, a dedicated disk-based pipeline processes multi-species exports without memory limits, while built-in cross-validation and evaluation functions enable rigorous map validation against independent datasets, offering a robust, low-barrier alternative to traditional modeling approaches.

For full documentation, workflows, and examples, visit the package website.

Installation

# From CRAN
install.packages("gbif.range")

# From GitHub (development version)
remotes::install_github("8Ginette8/gbif.range", build_vignettes = TRUE)

# Load
library(gbif.range)

Quick example

# Download Panthera tigris occurrences
obs.pt <- get_gbif(sp_name = "Panthera tigris")

# Load terrestrial ecoregions and build range map
eco.terra <- read_ecoreg(ecoreg_name = "eco_terra", save_dir = tempdir())
range.tiger <- get_range(occ_coord = obs.pt,
                         ecoreg = eco.terra,
                         ecoreg_name = "ECO_NAME",
                         degrees_outlier = 5,
                         clust_pts_outlier = 4,
                         format = "SpatRaster")

# Plot
countries <- terra::vect(
  system.file("extdata", "world_countries.shp", package = "gbif.range")
)
terra::plot(countries, col = "#bcbddc")
terra::plot(range.tiger$rangeOutput, col = "#238b45", add = TRUE, axes = FALSE, legend = FALSE)

Citation

Yohann Chauvier, Oskar Hagen, Stefan Pinkert, Camille Albouy, Fabian Fopp, Philipp Brun, Patrice Descombes, Florian Altermatt, Loic Pellissier, Katalin Csilléry. gbif.range: An R package to generate ecologically-informed species range maps from occurrence data with seamless GBIF integration. Authorea. June 30, 2025.
doi: 10.22541/au.175130858.83083354/v1


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Package metadata

cran.r-project.org: gbif.range

Species Range Mapping from GBIF Using Ecoregion Constraints

  • Homepage: https://github.com/8Ginette8/gbif.range
  • Documentation: http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/gbif.range/gbif.range.pdf
  • Licenses: GPL (≥ 3)
  • Latest release: 1.9.1 (published 22 days ago)
  • Last Synced: 2026-08-26T23:31:42.936Z (1 day ago)
  • Versions: 1
  • Dependent Packages: 0
  • Dependent Repositories: 0
  • Downloads: 282 Last month
  • Rankings:
    • Stargazers count: 7.783%
    • Forks count: 11.727%
    • Dependent packages count: 22.985%
    • Dependent repos count: 28.389%
    • Average: 31.609%
    • Downloads: 87.159%
  • Maintainers (1)

Dependencies

DESCRIPTION cran
  • CoordinateCleaner * depends
  • R >= 4.0.0 depends
  • raster * depends
  • rgbif * depends
  • terra * depends
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Score: 11.254918692828197