UC Merced -
Spring 2023

Data Science Research Biology: An intro to programming with R for ecology and evolution

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Shrub Volume Vectors


You have data on the length, width, and height of 10 individuals of the yew Taxus baccata stored in the following vectors:

length <- c(2.2, 2.1, 2.7, 3.0, 3.1, 2.5, 1.9, 1.1, 3.5, 2.9)
width <- c(1.3, 2.2, 1.5, 4.5, 3.1, NA, 1.8, 0.5, 2.0, 2.7)
height <- c(9.6, 7.6, 2.2, 1.5, 4.0, 3.0, 4.5, 2.3, 7.5, 3.2)

Copy these vectors into an R script and then determine the following:

  1. The volume of each shrub (length × width × height). Storing this in a variable will make some of the next problems easier.
  2. The sum of the volume of all of the shrubs (using the sum function).
  3. A vector of the height of shrubs with lengths > 2.5.
  4. A vector of the height of shrubs with heights > 5.
  5. A vector of the heights of the first 5 shrubs (using []).
  6. A vector of the volumes of the first 3 shrubs (using []).

Optional Challenge: A vector of the volumes of the last 5 shrubs with the code written so that it will return the last 5 values regardless of the length of the vector (i.e., it will give the last 5 values if there are 10, 20, or 50 individuals).