The programming language R and its interface RStudio are commonly used in diverse ecological assignments. This paper presents possibilities for creating maps using different R packages. The packages used are: "ggmap", "RgoogleMaps" and "leafleat", and the case examples are protected areas in Serbia. The paper shows the procedure of creating maps in the R environment and aims to promote the use of the described packages in similar tasks. In addition, the paper compares the above-listed packages and provides recommendations on which one to use depending on a type of mapping task.
Results/Conclusions
There are several maps created in the paper, the maps presenting national parks in Serbia, and maps presenting natural monuments in the form of individual protected trees in Novi Sad in Serbia. The maps presenting location and borders of all five national parks in Serbia have been created in all three analyzed packages, and therefore the output is three different maps. This way it is possible to make a comparison between the applied procedures and the appearance of the created maps. The maps presenting the protected trees in Novi Sad have been created in the "ggmap" package, using a condense database for each plant specimen (coordinates, taxonomy – division, Latin name, and protection status). This example shows the easy procedure of creating different types of maps by manipulating and combining input data related to the protected trees. The described procedures can be repeated for many similar mapping assignments.