I am using the `RandomForest` R package and am confused at how to interpret the values of the Y-axis in their partial dependence plots. Help docs state that the plot is a "graphical depiction of the marginal effect of a variable on the class probability." However, I am still confused as to what exactly the y-axis represents. 

 - Particularly, what do the negative values mean? 
 - What does it mean to have a negative influence on accurately predicting the class? 
 - And what is the most important feature from these figures, is it the max value, the shape of the trend etc? 
 - Can you compare the partial plots with partial plots of other variables? 
 - How might these plots compare with response curves created in Maxent (a distribution modeling software)?   

![Some example partial dependence plots][1]


  [1]: https://i.sstatic.net/aFkdB.png