R-Package BIOdry: DendroClimatic Modeling from Multilevel Ecological Data Series

Abstract. R-package BIOdry is developed to consider ecological factors in dendroclimatic modeling of forest ecosystems. The package processes Multilevel ecological data series (MEDS) with two functions: modelFrame and muleMan. These integrate techniques for modeling Tree-rings in wood (TRW) chronologies and climatic series at specific ecological-factor levels (one-level modeling), developing multilevel analysis (mixed-effects detrending), and implementing multivariate comparison of MEDS. Several one-level functions for serial synchronization, drought modeling and allometric scaling are implemented to model tree-diameter growth and drought of Iberian pine forests (Pinus pinaster Ait.). Trends in the dendroclimatic MEDS are subtracted with in-package detrending methods. Extracted fluctuations are normalized with lme methods. Finally, enhancements in dendroclimatic modeling by accounting for ecological factors are tested. We conclude that BIOdry package is an useful tool for studying complex ecological time-space relationships.