About the Data

Let’s introduce you to working with and manipulating data in R, exploring data, and plotting. We believe in learning by doing, so let’s start doing some things so that you can start learning.

The Resource-by-Predation dataset

This course uses data from an experiment that was conducted by a postdoctoral researcher at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama in 2010 and was published in the journal Ecology in 2013. The data is called by the short name RxP. This stands for “Resource by Predation,” which was the nature of the experiment as the study was referring to the interaction of resources and predators. This calls for a reiteration of a small but important point: since R is entirely based on typing commands by hand, we should give our datasets and variables short names so that they’re quick and easy to type.

First, let’s get a handle on what the data are.

The RxP data

• The experiment consisted ...