I would like to extract a number of bioclimatic variables (mainly from the Worldclim database) from the distribution ranges of several animal species. These distribution ranges are presented as shape files (.shp). Has anyone got some insightful links or info how to perform these analyses in an effective way using R? Unfortunately, I am only familiar with extracting variables from coordinates directly. Thanks!
Hi Chris, I don't know how to do it in R, but you can use the free software Geospatial Modelling Environment (http://www.spatialecology.com/gme/isectpolypoly.htm) which calls on R to make the calculations. Command at the link is the one you want.
Not as elegant as doing it all in R perhaps but workaround if user friendly workaround.
Hi Chris, do you only want one value for a distribution range (i.e. the shape file)?
Anyway, you could rasterize the shape file (here, you would use the same raster cell dimensions as your climate data) and extract the climatic data (see eg https://gis.stackexchange.com/questions/227585/how-to-use-r-to-extract-data-from-worldclim). Afterwards, you can decide to average those values over your distribution if you want.
Following web link may helps to meet your requirements.
http://worldclim.org/bioclim
http://www.worldclim.org/node/1
http://biodiversityinformatics.amnh.org/open_source/maxent/
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