Category Archives: Statistics

Kickstarting the year with HGAMs

Posted on February 25, 2019 by

To start off Reading Group for 2019, we dove headfirst into 43 brilliant pages on hierarchical generalised additive models (HGAMs) by Pederson et al. 2018, a pre-print titled “Hierarchical generalised additive models: an introduction with mgcv“. Although at first intimidated … Continue reading →

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These are QAEco’s favourite R packages, what’s yours? #favRpackage

Posted on September 7, 2016 by

Are you an ecologist? What stats program did you use to analyse your data ten years ago? How about now? A recent paper by Justin Touchon and colleagues reviewed changes in the statistics and statistical programs used by ecologists over … Continue reading →

Posted in Polls, Statistics | 6 Comments

Does More Data Mean Better Decisions?

Posted on September 4, 2015 by

We love more research and more data—but will they always mean better decisions? Interrogating this trade-off is at the heart of what much of Qaeco does. Over on the Methods Blog, recent PhD graduate Stefano Canessa discusses in detail The Value … Continue reading →

Posted in ARC-CEED, Papers, Statistics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Bogged down in the willows: making robust conservation decisions in the face of uncertainty

Posted on March 22, 2013 by

By Joslin Moore (This article was first published in the March 2013 issue of Decision Point, The Monthly Magazine of the Environmental Decisions Group) How much should we invest in learning as opposed to doing when it comes to conservation management? Keep in … Continue reading →

Posted in Papers, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

Developing and interpreting species distribution models: a checklist of the basics

Posted on March 15, 2013 by

By Brendan Wintle (This article was first published in the March 2013 issue of Decision Point, The Monthly Magazine of the Environmental Decisions Group) Species distribution models (SDMs) combine observations of species occurrence or abundance with information about environmental variables to gain ecological insights … Continue reading →

Posted in Decision Point, Statistics | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

How to link functional traits to species distribution models

Posted on July 7, 2012 by

Species distribution models turn up in on all sorts of papers these days, from those trying to explain speciation, to those predicting the outcome of climate change. The environmental variables used in such models are often assumed to relate to physiology somehow. But typically this … Continue reading →

Posted in Papers, Qaecologists, Statistics | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

What is the significance of this?

Posted on March 15, 2012 by

If you have ever done any scientific work that involved testing a null hypothesis, make sure you check out the discussion on this post over at the Journal of Ecology blog. Scroll down to the comments thread and you’ll find … Continue reading →

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