To evaluate how well species-environment models perform in different situations, modellers need the ability to generate virtual niches that have known properties. These virtual niches can then form the basis of virtual ecology experiments that can test how well different models perform under different conditions.
virtualNicheR is an R package that is unique in that it provides an integrated framework that is needed to generate both fundamental and realised niches. We envisage that the ability to generate integrated fundamental and realised virtual niches will allow modellers to improve the virtual ecology experiments that have been advocated for evaluating
species-environment relationship models.
The fundamental niches are defined as multivariate normal distributions, and the realised niches are created by defining the positive and negative interactions amongst a community of fundamental niches. A full description of the virtualNicheR package, including connections to niche theory and an explanation of the underlying mathematics, can be found in the associated software paper.