Numerical Ecology SECOND ENGLISH EDITION pptx

[...]... statistics, and numerical ecology Numerical ecology is the field of quantitative ecology devoted to the numerical analysis of ecological data sets Community ecologists, who generally use multivariate data, are the primary users of these methods The purpose of numerical ecology is to describe and interpret the structure of data sets by combining a variety of numerical approaches Numerical ecology differs... by numerical examples and/or applications drawn from the ecological literature, mostly in English; references written in languages other than English or French are generally of historical nature The expression numerical ecology refers to the following approach Mathematical ecology covers the domain of mathematical applications to ecology It may be divided into theoretical ecology and quantitative ecology. .. and prospective framework, so as to help ecologists take maximum advantage of the existing methods This second English edition of Numerical ecology is a revised and largely expanded translation of the second edition of Écologie numérique (Legendre & Legendre, 1984a, 1984b) Compared to the first English edition (1983a), there are three new chapters, dealing with the analysis of semiquantitative data (Chapter... established numerical taxonomy as a new discipline xiv Preface Numerical ecology combines a large number of approaches, derived from many disciplines, in a general methodology for analysing ecological data sets Its chief characteristic is the combined use of treatments drawn from different areas of mathematics and statistics Numerical ecology acknowledges the fact that many of the existing numerical. .. our manuscripts for the first French and English editions, respectively Many of their suggestions were incorporated into the texts which are at the origin of the present edition We are also grateful to Prof Ramón Margalef for his support, in the form of an influential Preface to the previous editions Over the years, we had fruitful discussions on various aspects of numerical methods with many colleagues,... carried out using techniques that are not fully adapted to the data under study, leading to conclusions that are sub-optimal with respect to the field observations When we were writing the first English edition of Numerical ecology (Legendre & Legendre, 1983a), this warning mainly concerned multivariate versus elementary statistics Nowadays, most ecologists are capable of using multivariate methods; the above... into nature's aims Seeks freedom and perfection; Let calculation sift his claims With faith and circumspection GOETHE As a premise to this textbook on Numerical ecology, the authors wish to state their opinion concerning the role of data analysis in ecology In the above quotation, Goethe cautioned readers against the use of mathematics in the natural sciences In his opinion, mathematics may obscure,... uses non-statistical procedures, and systematically Preface xiii combines relevant multidimensional statistical methods with non-statistical numerical techniques (e.g cluster analysis); statistical inference (i.e tests of significance) is seldom used Numerical ecology also differs from ecological modelling, even though the extrapolation of ecological structures is often used to forecast values in space... underlay causal models (see for instance Gold, 1977, Jolivet, 1982, or Jørgensen, 1983) are often developed within the context of studies using numerical ecology, the two fields are often in close contact Loehle (1983) reviewed the different types of models used in ecology, and discussed some relevant evaluation techniques In his scheme, there are three types of simulation models: logical, theoretical,... Chapter 11) Computer packages provide easy access to the most sophisticated numerical methods Ecologists with inadequate background often find, however, that using highlevel packages leads to dead ends In order to efficiently use the available numerical tools, it is essential to clearly understand the principles that underlay numerical methods, and their limits It is also important for ecologists to have . existing methods. This second English edition of Numerical ecology is a revised and largely expanded translation of the second edition of Écologie numérique. purpose of numerical ecology is to describe and interpret the structure of data sets by combining a variety of numerical approaches. Numerical ecology differs