[R-sig-eco] Reducing spatial autocorrelation

[Corrado]

Dear friends,

I have a large matrix of species (first 1100 columns) and environmental 
variables (last 36 columns) for approx 2000 sites.

The distance between sites varies. Some sites are near to each other, others 
are far. 

I would like to select a subset of N sites (for example: 400 sites) with the 
minimum spatial autocorrelation. The aim is to obtain a significant number of 
sites to carry out some statistical analysis, but with spatial autocorrelation 
significantly reduced.

Is there a procedure to do so in R? How would you approach the problem?

The aim of the "reduction" is to then work on dissimilarities between sites 
that have the lowest possible spatial autocorrelation.

Thanks
-- 
Corrado Topi

Global Climate Change & Biodiversity Indicators
Area 18,Department of Biology
University of York, York, YO10 5YW, UK
Phone: + 44 (0) 1904 328645, E-mail: ct529 at york.ac.uk