Tag Archives: statistics

Farewell to the Stats Corner

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Image Credit: angela n., CC BY 2.0, Image Cropped

The time has come for the Stats Corner to wrap up as Ecology for the Masses closes. I want to thank Sam Perrin for bringing me on board, carving out a place for statistics on the site, and supporting my writing for the past two years. He was always generous with his time helping me brainstorm topics when I was out of ideas and providing helpful feedback to make the posts more engaging and accessible. We all have Sam to thank for the fun pictures that kick off each post as well. 🙂 

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Getting to Know Your Long-Term Monitoring Data

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Title Image Credit: Tony Webster, CC BY-SA 2.0, Image Cropped

Nature is complicated and the environment is vast. How can we possibly learn all there is to know about our surroundings? Aspects of our natural world like life population dynamics and life histories influence the very survival of species, but understanding these requires data from long time periods. Luckily, technology and the remarkable commitment of some scientists have meant that we are making progress in data collection by establishing many long-term monitoring networks that collect a variety of information at many different locations. Weather sensors keep track of temperature, precipitation, and wind speed. Air and water-quality sensors keep track of what is in the air we breathe and the water we drink. 

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Let’s Get Meta… The Good Kind

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Image Credit: Patrick Kavanagh, CC BY 2.0, Image Cropped

In my last post we talked about using images as data. This time we’ll consider another non-traditional source of data: the results of other investigations. Using results to generate more results? That seems weird… at first. But think about how science progresses. We build on other studies all of the time! Sometimes we use others’ findings as a jumping off point. Other times, studies invite us to see if we can reproduce their findings under new conditions or with respect to our own study site or species of interest.

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Data in Colour: Bringing Photos Into Our Spreadsheets

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Image Credit: Shiv’s fotografia, CC BY-SA 4.0, Image Cropped

When I think of the ecological data I typically work with, it usually tells me where plants or animals are, how many of them there are, and how those quantities might change. Most often, these organisms boil down to a few spreadsheet cells. But what if the questions you’re asking are less “where is the organism”, and more “what does it look like”? 

Photographic data is not a new phenomenon for scientists, but thanks to huge leaps in technology (hello, camera phones) it is a booming data source.  Community science – whereby members of the general public submit photos of species they’ve happened across – has seen a huge rise in popularity, thanks to apps and community platforms like iNaturalist. As a result, photo data is constantly growing in abundance, and many studies are quickly adapting to take advantage of this data source.

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Does A Modern Ecologist Need To Become A Bayesian?

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Image Credit: 2010 Jee & Rani Nature Photography, CC BY-SA 4.0, Image Cropped

This question comes from Marney Pratt (@marney_pratt) as she noted that a recent paper tracking trends in ecology papers shows the use of Bayesian statistics increasing over time. (Before we get going, if you want a refresher about what exactly Bayesian thought entails, check out this previous post.) Anderson et al. say:

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“Wait, What Am I Even Saying?” Communicating Statistics To A Wide Audience

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If we write about our statistical methods behind our ecology work, and none of our readers understand it, have we really communicated at all?

This month I’m getting meta. It’s been about a year and a half since I started writing the Stats Corner for this blog with the goal of demystifying some of the statistical methods that are used by ecologists every day. At the same time, I’ve been writing a book with Deborah Nolan called “Communicating with Data: The Art of Writing for Data Science.” The book was released this spring, so it seemed like a good time to reflect on writing about statistics accessibly. 

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Bob O’Hara: The Rise of the Ecological Modeller

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Image Credit: Internet Archive Book Image, Public Domain, Image Cropped

Non-scientists still often think of ecologists as field workers in cargo shorts, running around a grassland with a notebook and a tape measure. Whilst I’d be remiss to say this wasn’t a percentage of us, the last two decades has seen the rise of ecological modelling, which has resulted in a new breed of ecologist. One who is capable of working almost exclusively with data, producing species distribution maps and population fluctuation graphs without leaving the office.

At the forefront of this group is Bob O’Hara, who has long claimed he plans to retire the moment he figures out whether he’s a biologist or statistician. Bob currently works at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, spending his time with the Centre for Biodiversity Dynamics and the Departments of Mathematical Sciences. I spoke to Bob about the history of ecological modelling, its integration into the wider field, and problems with modern ecological modelling.

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