Increase Plotting Options and Versatility

[chantelwetzel-noaa]

Overview

The package currently provides a range of standard plots to visualize indices, composition data, and data trends. The existing plots have remained relatively static over the last 6+ years. A number of useful and creative figures have been created within individual species assessments. Incorporating and standardizing these assessment specific figures would be beneficial for all package users.

Intended Outcome

Add new plotting functions based on feedback from assessment authors and update existing functions where needed.
Additionally, there is a new tool that creates alternative text for figures, BrailleR, for figures created using ggplot. Developing new figures and updating existing figures using ggplot, where appropriate, could assist us in creating automated useful alternative text for figures.

Existing Plots

• PlotBio.fn: one panel figure showing the estimated design-based index of abundance by year (base R plot)
• PlotBio.Strata.fn: multi-panel figure showing the estimated design-based index by year and strata (base R plot)
• PlotFreqData.fn: one panel figure showing the proportion of fish by length or age for each year via bubble plots (base R plot)
• PlotMap.fn: either one or multi-panel figure showing the CPUE across the coast aggregated across time or by year (ggplot)
• PlotPresenceAbsence.fn: one panel figure showing presence/absence by latitude or depth (base R plot)
• PlotSexRatio.fn: one panel figure showing the proportion female by length or age bin with bubble size indicating the proportion of observations at each length or age bin (base R plot)
• PlotSexRatioStrata.fn: multi-panel figure showing the proportion female within each strata (up to 9 per panel) with with bubble size indicating the proportion of observations at each length or age bin (base R plot)
• PlotVarLengthAtAge.fn: multi-panel figure showing the standard deviation and coefficient of variation at age of observed and predicted length (base R plot)

Proposed New Plots

Presented below is a preliminary list of plots that could be added to the package. The initial plots listed below are also under "Add new data visualizations" in #49.

• add function to show presence/absence by depth bin? #31, this would be an extension of the existing 'PlotPresencesAbsence.fn'
• Add figures showing the distribution of lengths from aged fish #54
• Add length/age frequency figures similar to those created by r4ss #55
• Move towards using more {ggplot2} graphics #34 that will examine what figures would benefit from being created using ggplot versus base R plotting

Plots to Eliminate

No plots at this point have been identified for elimination; however, this may change based on user feedback. Additionally, existing plotting functions could be subject to large changes if alternative ways of visualizing the data are identified.

User Suggestions

If there are specific figures that someone has created that they found useful for visualizing various aspects of the survey data, please create an issue with figure suggestions that can be added to the "Proposed New Plots" list.