---
name: conbio-figures-and-tables
description: Use when building tables, figures, and maps for a Conservation Biology manuscript so exhibits are self-contained, accessible, and respect the journal's exhibit budget (about one table or figure per four pages of text). Covers maps, effect plots, and masking sensitive species locations. Designs exhibits; it does not run the analysis.
---

# Figures, Tables & Maps (conbio-figures-and-tables)

Exhibits are where an expert reviewer checks whether the result is real, and in *Conservation Biology*
they are also **rationed**: the Style Guide asks for roughly **one supporting element (table or figure)
per four pages of text** from the Abstract through Literature Cited. So every exhibit must earn its
space. (Word counts exclude tables and figure legends, but exhibit count is constrained.)

## When to trigger

- Designing the main results figure/table, a study-area map, or a key descriptive exhibit
- Deciding what belongs in the article vs. Supporting Information
- A reviewer found an exhibit unclear, mislabeled, or non-self-contained
- Trimming to the exhibit budget by moving material online

## Principles

1. **Self-contained.** A reader should understand each exhibit from its title/caption, axis and column
   labels, and note alone — without hunting through the text. State units, sample, N, and what the
   estimate is.
2. **Figures over dense tables for effects.** Effect/forest plots, predicted-probability and
   partial-dependence plots, occupancy/abundance and survival curves communicate magnitude and
   uncertainty better than a wall of coefficients. Show intervals.
3. **Maps done right.** Study-area and result maps need a scale bar, north arrow, stated projection,
   and a locator/inset. Don't let a map decorate without informing.
4. **Accessible.** Colorblind-safe palettes; legible in grayscale; no chartjunk, no 3D, no needless
   color. Reviewers and readers must parse it quickly.
5. **Article vs. Supporting Information.** Keep the few exhibits that carry the argument in the article;
   move balance tables, full model output, and robustness grids to **Supporting Information**.
6. **Reproducible.** Each exhibit is generated by the master script; values match the deposited
   data/code package exactly (see `conbio-reporting-and-data-policy`).

## Sensitive-data caution (distinctive to conservation)
- **Mask or coarsen precise locations** of threatened, exploited, or trafficked taxa, nests, dens, or
  roosts so a map cannot aid poaching or disturbance. State in the caption that locations were masked.

## Anti-patterns

- Tables that require the prose to be intelligible (not self-contained)
- Significance stars with no effect size or interval
- Cramming every robustness check into the main text (blows the exhibit budget — use SI)
- Maps with no scale bar/projection, or that expose sensitive locations
- Color-only encoding that fails in grayscale or for colorblind readers
- Exhibit numbers/values that don't match the deposited code output


## Figure pass for Conservation Biology

Use this as a second-pass capability check. First lock the species/system threat, conservation decision, and uncertainty relevant to action; then test whether the manuscript addresses conservation-science reviewers who ask whether evidence changes biodiversity, management, or policy action.

- **Primary move:** Make each figure prove one claim: object, contrast, uncertainty, and failure case must be legible without relying on caption-only interpretation.
- **Decision ledger:** return `claim / evidence / blocker / next edit` rows so the next pass can patch the manuscript directly.
- **Neighbor test:** compare against Biological Conservation for applied conservation breadth, Global Change Biology for climate/ecosystem process, Ecology Letters for theory-forward ecology; if the neighboring outlet has the stronger audience claim, recommend re-routing before polishing.
- **Verification floor:** before submission-ready advice, re-open `resources/official-source-map.md` for volatile rules and name the one unresolved fact that could change the recommendation.

## Output format

```
【Main exhibit】what it shows + why a figure/table/map
【Self-contained?】title + labels + note + N/units present? [Y/N]
【Accessible?】grayscale-legible + colorblind-safe? [Y/N]
【Sensitive locations masked?】[Y/N/NA]
【Article vs SI】split decided, exhibit-budget impact noted
【Reproducible?】generated by master script, matches package? [Y/N]
【Next】conbio-reporting-and-data-policy
```

## Supplementary resources

- [`../../resources/external_tools.md`](../../resources/external_tools.md) — plotting, mapping, and spatial packages
- [`../../resources/official-source-map.md`](../../resources/official-source-map.md) — exhibit budget and word-count rule