Mitigating threats to plant species (important for biomedical use and food security) in the presence of climate change with spatial models

This project will result in the creation of an R package which will demonstrate
existing statistical methodology, area interaction point process models, in a novel area of
application– mitigation of climate change threat to public health. The proposed models
(incorporated in the R package) will facilitate the quantification of the impact of climate
change (temperature, rainfall, pH) on the spatial distribution of key plant species (for
nutrition in environmentally vulnerable communities) in a multi-species plant community.
Climate change has been implicated as negatively impacting on crop yield and food security
(https://www.actionagainsthunger.org/story/8-crops-endangered-climate-change ). The
mitigation of these effects needs to be addressed in multipronged ways – including the use
of spatial models. The models will also quantify the inter-plant associations and thus inform
reforestation/replanting efforts. This quantification will improve the knowledge on the
underlying processes which govern the coexistence of multispecies.