RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Distance Sampling in R JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 063891 DO 10.1101/063891 A1 David L Miller A1 Eric Rexstad A1 Len Thomas A1 Laura Marshall A1 Jeffrey L Laake YR 2016 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/07/14/063891.abstract AB Estimating the abundance and spatial distribution of animal and plant populations is essential for conservation and management. We introduce the R package Distance that implements distance sampling methods to estimate abundance. We describe how users can obtain estimates of abundance (and density) using the package as well documenting the links it provides with other more specialized R packages. We also demonstrate how Distance provides a migration pathway from previous software, thereby allowing us to deliver cutting-edge methods to the users more quickly.