SER: an R package to compute environmental regime over a certain time period

Abstract

SummaryEnvironmental regime (or environmental legacy or historical legacy) is the environmental dynamic characteristics over a given (either long or short) time period, such as frequency of mean or extreme events and rate of change, which might be masked by using only contemporary variables.We present SER, an R package for estimating environmental regimes for different environmental variables. Using the data included in the package, several examples are shown.SER is suitable for any types of environmental variables e.g., nutrient concentration, light, dissolved oxygen. In addition, by changing the argument “days_bf”, it is possible to compute environmental regimes in any interested time period, such as days, months or years.Our case study showed that inclusion of environmental regimes dramatically increased the explained variation of temporal β-diversity and its components. Environmental regimes, particularly in a given time period, are expected to advance the “environment - community” relationships in ecological studies. In addition, they can be implemented in other subjects, e.g., social science, socioeconomics, epidemiology, with important applied implications.