Outputs

Output files

LSCorridors creates a set of output files per source-target (ST) pairs:

1. a text (extension .txt) file with descriptive corridor information;
2. a raster indicating all replicate corridors for the source-target pair;
3. a folder with vector version of the corridors for the source-target pair.

The end of the names of both files and folders indicate the source-target patches simulated (e.g Resistance_map1_S00012_T00004, wherein source and target patches are respectively “12” and “4”).

Also, maps summarizing the resulting corridors for all combination of source-target patches for each simulation method are generated.

GIS files

In the main output folder, a raster file (extension .tif) with all replicate corridors for each source-target pair, for each simulation method. Also, inside each created folder (corresponding to each ST pair) a set of four GIS files are exported for each corridor simulated (extensions .shp, .dbf, .prj and .shx), which allows the user to open each simulated corridor as vector in GIS softwares.

Besides the results for each source-target pair, a raster map is exported in the main output folder, summarizing the simulation of the all replicates of simulated corridors for all source-target pairs, for a given simulation method. This maps indicates the route selection frequency index (RSFI), i.e., it indicates the number of corridors that passed by each pixel of the map.

Descriptive data files

In the output folder text files are generated. These files are descriptive data of each source-target patch combination, whereas each row represents one simulation. The columns represents, respectively:

1. EXPERIMENT: the "experiment info", which may be the name of the resistance map or the prefix of the output files defined by the user;
2. VARIABILITY: the variability parameter used as input for corridor simulations;
3. SCALE: the biological scale of landscape influence used as input for corridor simulations;
4. SIMULATION_METHOD: the code of simulation method (MP, MLmin, MLavg, or MLmax);
5. SIMULATION_NUMBER: the number of the simulation;
6. SOURCE: the corridor source patch;
7. TARGET: the corridor target patch;
8. LCP_LENGTH: the length of the simulated corridor, in meters;
9. LCP_COST: the cost of the corridor (sum of resistance values of each pixel through which the corridor passed);
10. EUCLIDEAN_DISTANCE: the euclidian (straight line) distance between the points of the source and target patches.
11. COORD_SOURCE_X: the longitude coordinate of the point of the source patch;
12. COORD_SOURCE_Y: the latitude coordinate of the point of the source patch;
13. COORD_TARGET_X: the longitude coordinate of the point of the target patch;
14. COORD_TARGET_y: the latitude coordinate of the point of the target patch.

Analyzing outputs

Although LSCorridors generates one descriptive data file for each source-target patch, it is possible to aggregate all files in a single one. We prepared a script that do this in R software. Other analyses of corridor output must be performed outside LSCorridors package, using the platform of your preference.