Supporting functionality to run 'caret' with spatial or spatial-temporal data. 'caret' is a frequently used package for model training and prediction using machine learning. CAST includes functions to improve spatial or spatial-temporal modelling tasks using 'caret'. It includes the newly suggested 'Nearest neighbor distance matching' cross-validation to estimate the performance of spatial prediction models and allows for spatial variable selection to selects suitable predictor variables in view to their contribution to the spatial model performance. CAST further includes functionality to estimate the (spatial) area of applicability of prediction models. Methods are described in Meyer et al. (2018) <doi:10.1016/j.envsoft.2017.12.001>; Meyer et al. (2019) <doi:10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2019.108815>; Meyer and Pebesma (2021) <doi:10.1111/2041-210X.13650>; Milà et al. (2022) <doi:10.1111/2041-210X.13851>; Meyer and Pebesma (2022) <doi:10.1038/s41467-022-29838-9>; Linnenbrink et al. (2023) <doi:10.5194/egusphere-2023-1308>. The package is described in detail in Meyer et al. (2024) <doi:10.48550/arXiv.2404.06978>.

Efficient phylogenetic analyses on massive phylogenies comprising up to millions of tips. Functions include pruning, rerooting, calculation of most-recent common ancestors, calculating distances from the tree root and calculating pairwise distances. Calculation of phylogenetic signal and mean trait depth (trait conservatism), ancestral state reconstruction and hidden character prediction of discrete characters, simulating and fitting models of trait evolution, fitting and simulating diversification models, dating trees, comparing trees, and reading/writing trees in Newick format. Citation: Louca, Stilianos and Doebeli, Michael (2017) <doi:10.1093/bioinformatics/btx701>.

Performs analysis of categorical-variable with missing values. Implements methods from Schafer, JL, Analysis of Incomplete Multivariate Data, Chapman and Hall.

Unifying an inconsistently coded categorical variable between two different time points in accordance with a mapping table. 
    The main rule is to replicate the observation if it could be assigned to a few categories. 
    Then using frequencies or statistical methods to approximate the probabilities of being assigned to each of them. 
    This procedure was invented and implemented in the paper by Nasinski, Majchrowska, and Broniatowska (2020) <doi:10.24425/cejeme.2020.134747>.