Data Analysis Methods in Ecology

Objectives

1. Consolidate the basic concepts and knowledge of statistics with the aim to analyse data in the research fields of Marine Ecology and Biology.

2. Acquaintance with research methods for exploring and analysing data emphasizing its use in the research fields of Marine Ecology and Biology.

3. Develop or improve skills needed to apply analytical techniques in Marine Ecology and Biology, through the use of the applicability of various quantitative tools, as well as analysis and interpretation of relevant information and presentation of results.

4. Use the Statistics, in order to describe and understand the relationships between variables or a data set from observational studies, to provide the interpretation of experimental results or of natural ecological phenomena and patterns. Mastering the basic concepts of preparation, treatment and analysis of data.

Program

1. Useful Excel functions to organize and pre-analyse the data.

2. Revision of descriptive statistical concepts

3. Basic introduction to R and to the programming editors TinnR and RStudio

4. Methods of data exploration

4.1. Management and data manipulation: variables types, missing data, censured data, errors, outlyers, type of variable transformation, response and explaining variables

4.2. Variables relationships, normality, homogeneity of variances, and collinearity problems. Graphical tools for exploration of the data: Simple and Conditional Boxplots, Cleveland dotplots, Histograms, QQ-plots, Dispersion plots, Pairplots, Coplots, Lattice plots

5. Basic notions of General Linear Models – assumptions and use

6. Introduction to Multivariate Analysis with PRIMER

6.1. Association measures, ordination and classification methods (PCA, MDS, PCO, RDA, Cluster Analysis)

6.2. Non parametric hypothesis tests in multivariate analysis – Anosim, Permanova, Simprof, Relate, Bio-Env, DistLm e CAP

Teaching Methodologies

The course contents are consistent with the objectives of the course because:

Sections 1to 2 of the syllabus intend to achieve the point 1 of the objectives;

Sections 3 to 6 of the syllabus intend to achieve the points 2, 3, 4 of the objectives;

All points of the syllabus intend to achieve the point 4 of the objectives.

Bibliography

Anderson, M.J., Gorley, R.N., Clarke, K.R., 2008. PERMANOVA+ for PRIMER: Guide to Software and Statistical Methods. PRIMER-E, Plymouth, UK

Clarke, K.R., Gorley, R.N., 2006. PRIMER v6: User Manual/Tutorial. PRIMER-E, Plymouth, U.K.

Grafen, A, Hails, R, 2002. Modern Statistics for the Life Sciences. Oxford University Press.

Quinn, G. & Keough, M, 2002. Experimental Design and Data Analysis for Biologists. Published by Cambridge University Press.

Zuur, AF, Ieno, EN and Smith,. GM 2007. Analysing Ecological Data. Springer. 680 pp.

Zuur, AF, Ieno, EN, Meesters, EHWG, 2009. A Beginner's Guide to R. Springer, 216 pp.