This graduate course will focus on methods used by ecologists
to analyze community data (not restricted to plants!). It will
involve hands-on experience with ordination
methods. Students are encouraged to bring or collect their
own data. If you have a particular data set you wish to analyze,
please contact me to determine whether it is appropriate. In the
past, class projects have resulted in thesis chapters and published
papers. Community patterns will also be discussed during one weekend
field trip. General
Ecology (BIOL 3034) or an equivalent course is a prerequisite;
Community
Ecology (BOT 5023) and prior statistical experience would
be helpful. Meets Tuesdays 10:30-11:45 AM in LSE 101, AND 3:30-4:45 PM in Math Sciences 108.
Selected Bibliographies on the use of ordination methods can be found here.
LECTURES
Notes are available from the Ordination
Web Page.
HOMEWORK
Prospectus: class project
Homework #1: t-tests and regression
Homework #2: multiple regression
Assignment:
select a paper on indirect gradient analysis
Homework #3: distance and weighted means
Homework #4: get your species data into shape
Homework #5: get your environmental data into shape
The Class Project - first version
Stats and Math from General Ecology lab manual
Gopen and Swan's Science of Scientific Writing
Putting things in Better Order
The above is a hypothetical example of a coenocline. One
of the chief purposes of ordination methods in ecology is to discover
which coenoclines are the most important. Sometimes this is possible
even if there is much experimental error, or even if we have no
measurements of the environment.