Finding Balance on the Bias-Variance Seesaw

Image Credit: WomEOS, CC BY-SA 2.0, Image Cropped
Image Credit: Erik Karits, Pixabay licence, Image Cropped
So it came as somewhat of a surprise to see ecologists try and tip their hat into the ring. Early on in the pandemic, teams of ecologists sprang up, trying to use Species Distribution Models to predict the spread of the virus. And whilst this might sound helpful, many of these studies lacked collaboration with epidemiologists, and their predictions very quickly fell flat. Some studies suggested that areas like Brazil and Central Africa would be largely spared by the virus, which quickly turned out not to be the case. Flaws in the studies were spotted quite quickly by concerned members of both the ecological and epidemiological communities alike, and a few teams got started on responses.
Image Credit: Bureau of Land Management, CC BY 2.0, Image Cropped
Image Credit: Grand Velas Riviera Maya, CC BY-SA 2.0, Image Cropped
After the first edition of Ecology for the Masses’ new Stats Corner, many people requested a discussion of p-values. Ask and you shall receive! And as an added bonus, we’ll also talk about confidence intervals. (Image Credit: Patrick Kavanagh, CC BY 2.0, Image Cropped)