Query Continents

Question

Hello, I'm hoping someone can help me with what feels like a rather straightforward problem.

I am conducting research into the distribution of body size in Squamates (Snakes and Lizards) in Europe and North America. Before I get into the interesting stuff, I need to simply compile a list of all the species recorded on these continents (as two separate tables- one for each continent). I have downloaded the relevant data from the IUCN website and have opened it within ArcMap with no problems. I can see range data for all the species recorded in the database.

I was wondering how I can select just a continent and export the list of all species present (according to the shapefile). Do I need to draw a polygon around the required area and run a query that way? If so, how can I go about doing this?

Many thanks for your time, I'm really hoping someone can help the n00b!

Simon

SimonTarr · Answer

Just wanted to report back to say this worked perfectly. Thanks very much for your assistance.

SimonTarr · Answer

Thanks so much for your help. I will have a go now and shall report back.

Simon

JoshuaChisholm · Answer

Select by location!

The exact same process above, but us select by location instead of select by attribute. With select by location, you need to choose the spatial selection method (I would probably use "Intersects" which just finds polygons that overlap at all). You'll also need polygons for the continents. You can find that data online (maybe here). You'll need to play around with it a bit to get the right selection of species data, but this is the general idea:
1) Select you're desired continent(s) (like North America) in the continents feature class.
2) Use select by location to select the polygons with species data (make sure you check the only use selected features box so that it only selects species polygons that overlap with North America).
3) Run the summary on the selected species polygons (see other post).

Good luck!