Choropleth maps are an excellent way to visualise numbers of observations, but when using point data, calculating the number of points in each polygon can be difficult when using shapefiles. Here we demonstrate how to extract and summarise the number of points in each polygon to create a choropleth map.
Convex hulls and alpha hulls are wonderful alternatives for visualising species distributions when a species has very few existing observations. Here, we will show you how to create these spatial polygons using data from the ALA.
Human biases play a large role in the data we collect about species. Here we show a simple method to quantify the bias of roads, cities, rivers and airports on species observations of legless lizards in the Northern Territory
Using multiple colour scales can be a great way to visually differentiate between geographic categories on a map. Here, we demonstrate this by creating a choropleth map to represent the density of plant records from the ALA across bioregions in Australia, and add multiple colour scales to differentiate marine and terrestrial records
Making plots eye-catching can be useful for science communication. Here, we show how to make 3D plots in R with the `rayshader` package by visualising the number of species identified from ALA observations since 2020
Hex maps are a neat way to represent spatial information. Here, we show how to draw one using the most common species in the ALA database: the iconic Australian Magpie.
Since version 1.3.1 of `galah`, it has been possible to download taxonomic data using a 'tree' format from the `data.tree` package. Here I'll demonstrate some ideas for plotting these trees using circular diagrams.
There are hundreds of color palettes in the R ecosystem, but sometimes we might want to use colors from a specific image. Here I show how to use the `paletter` package to create a color palette for the 2020 Eucalypt of the Year: the Western Australian Gimlet.
The ALA is made possible by contributions from its partners, is supported by NCRIS, is hosted by CSIRO, and is the Australian node of GBIF.
Acknowledgement of Traditional Owners and Country
The Atlas of Living Australia acknowledges Australia's Traditional Owners
and pays respect to the past and present Elders of the nation's Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islander communities. We honour and celebrate the
spiritual, cultural and customary connections of Traditional Owners to
country and the biodiversity that forms part of that country.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Australia License