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Plot direction data in tracks.

Source: R/plot_direction.R
plot_direction.Rd

plot_direction() generates different types of plots to visualize the direction data from track R objects. The function allows for the creation of boxplots, polar histograms of step directions, polar histograms of average directions per track, and faceted polar histograms.

Usage

plot_direction(
  data,
  plot_type = "boxplot",
  angle_range = 30,
  y_labels_position = 90,
  y_breaks_manual = NULL
)

Arguments

data

A track R object, which is a list consisting of two elements:

  • Trajectories: A list of interpolated trajectories, where each trajectory is a series of midpoints between consecutive footprints.

  • Footprints: A list of data frames containing footprint coordinates, metadata (e.g., image reference, ID), and a marker indicating whether the footprint is actual or inferred.

plot_type

A character string indicating the type of plot to generate. The options are "boxplot", "polar_steps", "polar_average", and "faceted". Default is "boxplot".

angle_range

A numeric value specifying the width of the bins (in degrees) used for polar plots. Default is 30 degrees.

y_labels_position

A numeric value specifying the position (in degrees) of the y-axis labels in the polar plots. Default is 90 degrees.

y_breaks_manual

A numeric vector specifying manual breaks for the y-axis in polar plots. If NULL, the breaks are calculated automatically. Default is NULL.

Value

A ggplot object that displays the specified plot type. The ggplot2 package is used for plotting.

Details

The plot_direction() function provides four types of plots:

  • "boxplot": A boxplot showing the distribution of step direction values for each track.

  • "polar_steps": A polar plot showing the frequency of step in different direction bins.

  • "polar_average": A polar plot showing the frequency of average directions per track in different direction bins.

  • "faceted": A polar plot similar to "polar_steps" but faceted by track.

The angle_range parameter defines the bin width for the polar plots, and y_labels_position allows for adjusting the position of y-axis labels. The y_breaks_manual parameter lets users manually specify the breaks on the y-axis for finer control over the appearance of the polar plots.

See also

tps_to_track, test_direction

Author

Humberto G. Ferrón

humberto.ferron@uv.es

Macroevolution and Functional Morphology Research Group (www.macrofun.es)

Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology

Calle Catedrático José Beltrán Martínez, nº 2

46980 Paterna - Valencia - Spain

Phone: +34 (9635) 44477

Examples

# Example 1: Boxplot of Direction Data in MountTom Dataset
plot_direction(MountTom, plot_type = "boxplot")


# Example 2: Polar Plot of Step Directions in MountTom Dataset
plot_direction(MountTom, plot_type = "polar_steps")


# Example 3: Polar Plot of Average Directions Per Track in MountTom Dataset
plot_direction(MountTom, plot_type = "polar_average")


# Example 4: Faceted Polar Plot of Step Directions in MountTom Dataset
plot_direction(MountTom, plot_type = "faceted")


# Example 5: Polar Plot with Custom Angle Range in MountTom Dataset
plot_direction(MountTom, plot_type = "polar_steps", angle_range = 90)


# Example 6: Polar Plot with Custom Y-Axis Labels and Breaks in MountTom Dataset
plot_direction(MountTom,
  plot_type = "polar_steps", y_labels_position = 0,
  y_breaks_manual = c(0, 15, 30, 45, 60)
)


# Example 7: Boxplot of Direction Data in PaluxyRiver Dataset
plot_direction(PaluxyRiver, plot_type = "boxplot")


# Example 8: Polar Plot of Step Directions in PaluxyRiver Dataset
plot_direction(PaluxyRiver, plot_type = "polar_steps")


# Example 9: Polar Plot of Average Directions Per Track with Custom Breaks in PaluxyRiver Dataset
plot_direction(PaluxyRiver,
  plot_type = "polar_average",
  y_breaks_manual = c(1, 2)
)


# Example 10: Faceted Polar Plot of Step Directions in PaluxyRiver Dataset
plot_direction(PaluxyRiver, plot_type = "faceted")


# Example 11: Polar Plot of Average Directions Per Track with Custom Breaks in PaluxyRiver Dataset
plot_direction(PaluxyRiver,
  plot_type = "polar_average",
  y_breaks_manual = c(1, 2)
)


# Example 12: Polar Plot with Custom Y-Axis Labels in PaluxyRiver Dataset
plot_direction(PaluxyRiver,
  plot_type = "polar_steps",
  y_labels_position = -90
)