Description: This R package is for multivariate regression and classification with spatial objects. It was developed for species-distribution modelling, but there's nothing biology-specific to it. Use it on spatially distributed continious quantities (as well as count and presence/absence data), featuring random forest, gbm.step, and gbm, gam, and maxent. It provides means for crossvalidation, various model performance metrics and helper functions for null models, spatial autocorrelation, etc., and a number of convenience functions.

Description: Biodiversity is seen as a core-service of marine ecosystems, and rare and endangered species play a crucial role in maintaining biodiversity. In shallow shelf seas such as the North Sea, benthic organisms contribute significantly to overall biodiversity. Hence, knowledge of biological characteristics and spatial distribution of benthic biodiversity and of benthic rare species is essential for sustainable ecosystem management and for the conservation of endangered species. In 2013, the status of endangered species was revised and published via the new “red list”. Regarding the marine benthic species on this list, the evidence used to judge them “endangered” is quite often scientifically unsatisfying by insufficient data and an imperfectly picture on their spatial occurrence. We use an extensive information system on benthic invertebrates in the German EEZ of the North Sea (〉9000 stations x 〉740 species) for a high-resolution and large-scale analysis of occurrence and spatial distribution of “red list” species. For the first time, we evaluate the functional role of endangered species by means of their biological traits and analyse their spatial distribution in the EEZ. Finally, we identify potentially sensitive areas where endangered species cluster. This information constitutes a sound scientific base for a sustainable ecosystem management.

Description: Numerous ecosystem goods and services, such as marine biodiversity, long-term carbon storage and natural resources (e.g. for fish, birds, mammals and finally humans), are intimately linked to the benthic system. Maintenance of the benthic system at a healthy ecological status is thus of particular interest. The mandatory monitoring concept of offshore wind farm effects on the marine environment (StUK) prescribes extensive investigations on soft-bottom benthos and fouling assemblages of the wind turbine foundations. StUK and studies beyond StUK in the test field alpha ventus (North Sea, German Bight) were carried out to evaluate the German monitoring concept. Our investigations show a massive colonization of turbine foundations by fouling organisms and an aggregation of megafauna around constructions, both resulting in a local increase in biomass and species richness of the benthos, but no direct turbine effects on the soft-bottom benthos at the scale investigated. Temporal variations of sediment conditions and benthic communities were similar inside and outside the wind farm area. During the alpha ventus case-study, limits of benthic ecological studies according to StUK became evident and recommendations were elaborated for future improvements. Beyond our field studies, an aggregated database of StUK data from approved wind farms and data from research projects serves as the base for large-scale benthic ecosystem analysis. Current efforts are being made to quantitatively estimate benthic species distributions on a transnational scale, a prerequisite for cross-border spatial planning. Further, we strive to estimate species or group specific “natural corridors of variation” to discriminate anthropogenic effects from natural background variability. Finally, functionally sensible areas and important geographic sites that are of public concern regarding ecosystem services and goods are to be identified. This data will be used to provide evaluation criteria for identifying sensible areas in the context of licensing procedures of offshore wind farms and marine spatial planning. Study outcomes (e.g. in terms of maps) are made public via the internet (GeoSeaPortal) in order to provide stakeholders, e.g. authorities and scientific institutions, with scientific advice.