Field and laboratory methods for general ecology pdf

The book evaluates appropriate methods, including the problems associated with various techniques and their inherent flaws e. This provides a resource base outlining details from the planning stage, into the field, guiding through sampling and finally through organism identification in the laboratory and computer based data analysis and interpretation.

The text is divided into six distinct chapters. The first chapter covers planning, including health and safety together with information on a variety of statistical techniques for examining and analysing data. Following a chapter dealing with site characterisation and general aspects of species identification, subsequent chapters describe the techniques used to survey and census particular groups of organisms.

The final chapter covers interpreting and presenting data and writing up the research. The emphasis here is on appropriate wording of interpretation and structure and content of the report. It presents fundamental concepts in statistical inference and intermediate topics such as multiple least squares regression and ANOVA.

The objective is to teach students to recognize situations where various statistical methods should be used, understand the strengths and limitations of the methods, and to show how they are implemented in R code. Examples are based on research described in the literature of behavioral ecology, with data sets and analysis code provided. Features: This intermediate to advanced statistical methods text was written with the behavioral ecologist in mind Computer programs are provided, written in the R language.

Datasets are also provided, mostly based, at least to some degree, on real studies. It is assumed that the reader has already had exposure to statistics through a first introductory course at least, and also has sufficient knowledge of R.

However, some introductory material is included to aid the less initiated reader. Scott Pardo, Ph. Michael Pardo is a Ph. This field and laboratory techniques manual will provide you, as a teacher, with the opportunity to engage your students in doing a research project.

In the last ten years, science education has been changing from asking students to memorize texts and facts to empowering students to do hands-on research. Climate change represents one of the most alarming long-term threats to ecosystems the world over. This new collection of papers provides, for the first time, an overview of the potentially serious impact that climate change may have on tropical forests.

The authors, a multi-disciplinary group of leading experts in climatology, forestry, ecology and conservation biology, present a state-of-knowledge snapshot of how tropical forests are likely to react to the changes being wrought on our planet's atmosphere and climate. Tropical forests represent extraordinary harbours for biological diversity, and yet as deforestation and degradation continue apace, they are under greater pressure from human impacts than ever before.

Climate change adds yet another threat to these valuable ecosystems, and this volume demonstrates just how significant a problem this may really be. The authors identify certain types of forest, including tropical montane cloud forest that may be particularly vulnerable.

They also show the strong likelihood of global warming aggravating problems in already fragmented forest areas. Ecologists are increasingly tackling difficult issues like global change, loss of biodiversity and sustainability of ecosystem services. These and related topics are enormously challenging, requiring unprecedented multidisciplinary collaboration and rapid synthesis of large amounts of diverse data into information and ultimately knowledge.

New sensors, computers, data collection and storage devices and analytical and statistical methods provide a powerful tool kit to support analyses, graphics and visualizations that were unthinkable even a few years ago. New and increased emphasis on accessibility, management, processing and sharing of high-quality, well-maintained and understandable data represents a significant change in how scientists view and treat data.

These issues are complex and despite their importance, are typically not addressed in database, ecological and statistical textbooks. This book addresses these issues, providing a much needed resource for those involved in designing and implementing ecological research, as well as students who are entering the environmental sciences.

Chapters focus on the design of ecological studies, data management principles, scientific databases, data quality assurance, data documentation, archiving ecological data and information and processing data into information and knowledge. The book stops short of a detailed treatment of data analysis, but does provide pointers to the relevant literature in graphics, statistics and knowledge discovery. The central thesis of the book is that high quality data management systems are critical for addressing future environmental challenges.

This requires a new approach to how we conduct ecological research, that views data as a resource and promotes stewardship, recycling and sharing of data. Ecological Data will be particularly useful to those ecologists and information specialists that actively design, manage and analyze environmental databases. However, it will also benefit a wider audience of scientists and students in the ecological and environmental sciences. Journals A-Z. Journals by Subject.

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