Vector of the areas of elements of the SpatialDataFrame (same length as the SpatialDataFrame):
SpatialIndexDataFrame, SpatialPointsDataFrame: 0s, with warning.
SpatialPixelsDataFrame, SpatialGridDataFrame: cell size, repeated for each cell
SpatialPolygridDataFrame: sum of cell sizes of all cells related to the respective index value
SpatialPolygonsDataFrame: sum of area of all polygons related to the respective Polygons object
SpatialLinesDataFrame: sum of length of lines related to the respective Lines object