spatialData Spatial Datasets for Ecological Modeling

The R package spatialData provides spatial ecological datasets from research papers as sf data frames ready for analysis and modeling. It was designed as example data for other spatial R packages, but works equally well for tutorials and teaching.

Installation

Install from CRAN.

install.packages("spatialData")

Install the development version from GitHub.

library(pak)
# pak::pkg_install("blasbenito/spatialData")
install.packages("spatialData", repos = c('https://blasbenito.r-universe.dev', 'https://cloud.r-project.org'))

Data Loading

As with other example datasets in the R language, the different datasets in spatialData can be loaded with the function data().

library(spatialData)
#> 
#> Attaching package: 'spatialData'
#> The following object is masked from 'package:datasets':
#> 
#>     trees
data(quercus)
colnames(quercus)
#>  [1] "species"               "bio1"                  "bio10"                
#>  [4] "bio11"                 "bio12"                 "bio13"                
#>  [7] "bio14"                 "bio15"                 "bio16"                
#> [10] "bio17"                 "bio18"                 "bio19"                
#> [13] "bio2"                  "bio3"                  "bio4"                 
#> [16] "bio5"                  "bio6"                  "bio7"                 
#> [19] "topographic_diversity" "human_footprint"       "landcover_veg_bare"   
#> [22] "landcover_veg_herb"    "landcover_veg_tree"    "ndvi_average"         
#> [25] "ndvi_maximum"          "ndvi_minimum"          "ndvi_range"           
#> [28] "sun_rad_average"       "sun_rad_maximum"       "sun_rad_minimum"      
#> [31] "sun_rad_range"         "topo_slope"            "geometry"

Datasets

The table below summarizes the sf dataframes currently available in spatialData:

Dataset Description Spatial scope Temporal scope Rows Responses Predictors CRS Geometry
andalusia Plant presences and environmental predictors Andalusia, Spain 2000 - 2010 46,465 2 20 EPSG:25830 POINT
communities Plant communities Sierra Nevada, SE Spain 2009 7,300 6 9 EPSG:25830 POINT
interaction Butterfly & host plant Sierra Nevada, SE Spain 2014 1,000 3 10 EPSG:25830 POINT
linaria Linaria nigricans vs. greenhouses Eastern Andalusia, Spain 7,386 2 20 EPSG:25830 POINT
neanderthal Neanderthals during MIS 5e Europe ~120,000 BP (MIS 5e) 245 1 25 EPSG:4326 POINT
plantae Plant diversity of the World’s Ecoregions Global 2020 662 53 84 EPSG:4326 POINT (centroids)
quercus European oaks Europe present 6,728 1 31 EPSG:4326 POINT
trees Tree richness in Mesoamerica Americas 2012 3,373 1 50 EPSG:4326 POLYGON
vi Global NDVI records Global 1999–2019 9,265 5 58 EPSG:4326 POINT

Extra Data

Several datasets ship with companion download functions that retrieve larger or complementary files from spatialDataExtra.

Dataset Function Description Format Geometry / Bands Resolution CRS
andalusia andalusia_extra() Environmental predictors GeoTIFF 20 bands 400 m EPSG:25830
communities communities_extra_2010() Baseline predictors (2010) GeoTIFF 9 bands 100 m EPSG:25830
communities communities_extra_2050() Projected predictors (2050) GeoTIFF 9 bands 100 m EPSG:25830
communities communities_extra_2100() Projected predictors (2100) GeoTIFF 9 bands 100 m EPSG:25830
interaction interaction_extra() Environmental predictors GeoTIFF 10 bands 100 m EPSG:25830
linaria linaria_extra() Environmental predictors GeoTIFF 20 bands 400 m EPSG:25830
neanderthal neanderthal_extra() Palaeoclimate and topographic predictors GeoTIFF 25 bands 0.18° EPSG:4326
plantae plantae_extra() Ecoregion polygons with full diversity data GeoPackage MULTIPOLYGON 662 features EPSG:4326
quercus quercus_extra() Environmental predictors GeoTIFF 31 bands 0.167° EPSG:4326
trees trees_extra() Individual tree species presence points GeoPackage POINT 523,308 rows EPSG:4326
vi vi_extra() Extended NDVI dataset (30,000 records) GeoPackage POINT 30,000 rows EPSG:4326

License

CC BY 4.0 — see LICENSE.md for details.

Citation

The license of spatialData requires the following citation:

citation("spatialData")
#> To cite package 'spatialData' in publications use:
#> 
#>   Benito B (2025). "spatialData: Spatial Datasets for Ecological
#>   Modeling." doi:10.5281/zenodo.19508673
#>   <https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19508673>, R package version 1.0.1,
#>   <https://blasbenito.github.io/spatialData/>.
#> 
#> A BibTeX entry for LaTeX users is
#> 
#>   @Misc{,
#>     title = {spatialData: Spatial Datasets for Ecological Modeling},
#>     author = {Blas M. Benito},
#>     year = {2025},
#>     note = {R package version 1.0.1},
#>     url = {https://blasbenito.github.io/spatialData/},
#>     doi = {10.5281/zenodo.19508673},
#>   }

Several datasets were sourced from research paper and require their own citations as well:

andalusia

communities

interaction

linaria

Benito, B.P.d., Peñas, J.G.d. (2008). Greenhouses, land use change, and predictive models: MaxEnt and Geomod working together. In: Paegelow, M., Olmedo, M.T.C. (eds) Modelling Environmental Dynamics. Environmental Science and Engineering. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-68498-5_11

neanderthal

plantae

trees