BiodiversityR (version 1.5)

spatialsample: Spatial Sampling within a Polygon

Description

Spatial sampling within a polygon provides several methods of selecting rectangular sample plots within a polygon. Using a GIS package may be preferred for actual survey design.

Usage

spatialsample(x,method="random",n=5,xwidth=0.5,ywidth=0.5,xleft=0,
    ylower=0,xdist=0,ydist=0,plotit=T,plothull=F)

Arguments

x

2-column matrix with the coordinates of the vertices of the polygon. The first column contains the horizontal (x) position, the second column contains the vertical (y) position.

method

Method of sampling, any of "random", "grid" or "random grid".

n

Number of sample plots to be selected, or number of horizontal and vertical grid positions.

xwidth

Horizontal width of the sample plots.

ywidth

Vertical width of the sample plots.

xleft

Horizontal starting position of the grid.

ylower

Vertical starting position of the grid.

xdist

Horizontal distance between grid locations.

ydist

Vertical distance between grid locations.

plotit

Plot the sample plots on the current graph.

plothull

Plot a convex hull around the sample plots.

Value

• The function returns a list of centres of rectangular sample plots.

Details

Spatial sampling within a polygon provides several methods of selecting the position of sample plots. Method "random" selects random positions of the sample plots using simple random sampling. Method "grid" selects sample plots from a grid defined by "xleft", "ylower", "xdist" and "ydist". In case xdist=0 or ydist=0, then the number of grid positions are defined by "n". In case "xleft" or "ylower" are below the minimum position of any vertix of the polygon, then a random starting position is selected for the grid. Method "random grid" selects sample plots at random from the sampling grid using the same methods of defining the grid as for method "grid".

References

Kindt, R. & Coe, R. (2005) Tree diversity analysis: A manual and software for common statistical methods for ecological and biodiversity studies. http://www.worldagroforestry.org/resources/databases/tree-diversity-analysis

Examples

library(splancs)
area <- array(c(10,10,15,35,40,35,5,35,35,30,30,10), dim=c(6,2))
landuse1 <- array(c(10,10,15,15,30,35,35,30), dim=c(4,2))
landuse2 <- array(c(10,10,15,15,35,30,10,30,30,35,30,15), dim=c(6,2))
landuse3 <- array(c(10,10,30,35,40,35,5,10,15,30,30,10), dim=c(6,2))
plot(area[,1], area[,2], type="n", xlab="horizontal position", 
    ylab="vertical position", lwd=2, bty="l")
polygon(landuse1)
polygon(landuse2)
polygon(landuse3)
spatialsample(area, method="random", n=20, xwidth=1, ywidth=1, plotit=TRUE, 
    plothull=FALSE)
spatialsample(area, method="grid", xwidth=1, ywidth=1, plotit=TRUE, xleft=12, 
    ylower=7, xdist=4, ydist=4)
spatialsample(area, method="random grid", n=20, xwidth=1, ywidth=1, 
    plotit=TRUE, xleft=12, ylower=7, xdist=4, ydist=4)