Fit and validate Random Forest models with exploration of hyper-parameters that optimize performance

Usage

tune_abund_raf(
  data,
  response,
  predictors,
  predictors_f = NULL,
  fit_formula = NULL,
  partition,
  predict_part = FALSE,
  grid = NULL,
  metrics = NULL,
  n_cores = 1,
  verbose = TRUE
)

Arguments

data: tibble or data.frame. Database with response, predictors, and partition values
response: character. Column name with species abundance.
predictors: character. Vector with the column names of quantitative predictor variables (i.e. continuous variables). Usage predictors = c("temp", "precipt", "sand")
predictors_f: character. Vector with the column names of qualitative predictor variables (i.e. ordinal or nominal variables type). Usage predictors_f = c("landform")
fit_formula: formula. A formula object with response and predictor variables (e.g. formula(abund ~ temp + precipt + sand + landform)). Note that the variables used here must be consistent with those used in response, predictors, and predictors_f arguments. Default NULL
partition: character. Column name with training and validation partition groups.
predict_part: logical. Save predicted abundance for testing data. Default = FALSE
grid: tibble or data.frame. A dataframe with "mtry" and "ntree" as columns and its values combinations as rows. If no grid is provided, function will create a default grid combining the next hyperparameters: mtry = seq(2, length(predictors), by = 1), ntree = seq(500, 1000, by = 100). In case one or more hyperparameters are provided, the function will complete the grid with the default values.
metrics: character. Vector with one or more metrics from c("corr_spear","corr_pear","mae","pdisp","inter","slope").
n_cores: numeric. Number of cores used in parallel processing.
verbose: logical. If FALSE, disables all console messages. Default TRUE

Value

A list object with:

model: A "randomForest" class object from randomForest package. This object can be used for predicting.
predictors: A tibble with quantitative (c column names) and qualitative (f column names) variables use for modeling.
performance: A tibble with selected model's performance metrics calculated in adm_eval.
performance_part: A tibble with performance metrics for each test partition.
predicted_part: A tibble with predicted abundance for each test partition.
optimal_combination: A tibble with the selected hyperparameter combination and its performance.
all_combinations: A tibble with all hyperparameters combinations and its performance.

Examples

if (FALSE) {
require(dplyr)

# Database with species abundance and x and y coordinates
data("sppabund")

# Select data for a single species
some_sp <- sppabund %>%
  dplyr::filter(species == "Species two") %>%
  dplyr::select(-.part2, -.part3)

# Explore response variables
some_sp$ind_ha %>% range()
some_sp$ind_ha %>% hist()

# Here we balance number of absences
some_sp <-
  balance_dataset(some_sp, response = "ind_ha", absence_ratio = 0.2)

# Create a grid
raf_grid <- expand.grid(
  mtry = seq(from = 2, to = 3, by = 1),
  ntree = seq(from = 500, to = 1000, by = 100),
  stringsAsFactors = FALSE
)

# Tune a RAF model
tuned_raf <- tune_abund_raf(
  data = some_sp,
  response = "ind_ha",
  predictors = c("bio12", "elevation", "sand"),
  predictors_f = c("eco"),
  partition = ".part",
  predict_part = TRUE,
  metrics = c("corr_pear", "mae"),
  grid = raf_grid,
  n_cores = 3
)

tuned_raf
}