habtools: A Tool for Measuring Habitat Shape and Complexity

New imaging technologies now let scientists capture detailed 3D pictures of habitats like coral reefs. But turning all that data into useful information—such as how complex or varied a reef’s surface is—has been a challenge.

To make this easier, researcher at the Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology created habtools, a software package for the R programming language. It provides simple functions to calculate measures of habitat complexity and shape from 3D and 2D data. This helps researchers link the physical structure of reefs and other habitats to the plants and animals that live there.

habtools is designed to grow over time as new methods become available, and others are invited to add features and ideas.