Multivariate Statistics for Wildlife and Ecology Research

(NRC 631)

Course Schedule

This course and all relevant polices are described in detail in the course syllabus (requires Adobe Acrobat Reader to view). This page provides a schedule for lectures and labs, including links to all lecture notes (require Adobe Acrobat Reader to view) and slide presentations, for the benefit of students taking the course. Slide presentations can be viewed by clicking on the link associated with each topic. Readings in bold are required, all others are supplemental and are available in the Multivariate Statistics Readings box in Holdsworth outside room 304.

Date Topic Readings
Part 1: Introduction to Multivariate Statistics
9/7 Course overview: what is multivariate statistics? [slides][handouts]

Syllabus; Chapter 1
9/12-14 The multivariate data set -- two-way data matrices and ecological distance [slides][handouts]; data screening and adjustments [slides][handouts] McCune and Grace (chapters 6,7, and 9)
LAB: Introduction to R
Part 2: Unconstrained Ordination
9/19-21 Unconstrained ordination overview; principal components analysis (PCA) -- methodology and interpretation [slides][handouts]

Chapter 2
LAB: Data Preparation/Screening and Adjustment
9/26-28 Principal components analysis (PCA) -- methodology and interpretation [slides][handouts] Chapter 2
LAB: PCA -- Analysis and Interpretation
10/3-5 Other unconstrained ordination methods -- correspondence analysis and multidimensional scaling [slides][handouts] Chapter 2
LAB: CA/DCA /NMMDS -- Analysis and Interpretation
Part 3: Cluster Analysis
10/10-12 Cluster analysis -- overview; nonhierarchical methods [slides][handouts] Chapter 3
LAB: NO LAB - Monday's Schedule!
10/17-19 Cluster analysis --agglomerative hierarchical methods [slides][handouts] Chapter 3
LAB: Cluster Analysis-- Introduction and Analysis
Part 4: Discrimination
10/25-26 Discrimination among groups -- testing for differences among groups: multi-response permutation procedure (MRPP), analysis of group similarities (ANOSIM), and Mantel's test (MANTEL) [slides][handouts] McCune and Grace (2002): chapter 24 and 27
LAB: Cluster Analysis -- Analysis and Interpretation

10/31-2

 

 Discrimination among groups -- Disciminant analysis (DA) [slides][handouts]

Chapter 4
LAB: MRPP/ANOSIM/MANTEL -- Analysis and Interpretation
11/7-9 Discrimination among groups -- Discriminant analysis (DA) continued [same slides and handouts] Chapter 4
LAB: DA -- Analysis and Interpretation
11/14-16 Discrimination among groups -- Classification and regression tree analysis (CART) and indicator species analysis (ISA) [slides][handouts] D'eath and Fabricius 2000
LAB: CART -- Introduction, Analysis and Interpretation
Part 5: Constrained Ordination
11/21 Constrained ordination overview: canonical correspondence analysis (CCA)--theory, data set, assumptions [slides][handouts] Ter Braak 1986;
Ter Braak 1987
LAB: CCA/RDA -- Introduction and Analysis
11/28-30 Constrained ordination (CCA/RDA/CAP)--methodology and interpretation [slides][handouts][slides][handouts] Palmer 1993;
Ter Braak & Verdonschot 1995
LAB: CCA/RDA -- Analysis and Interpretation
12/5-7 Canonical correlation (CanCor) and multivariate CART overviw; hierarchical decomposition of species-environment relationships and causal modeling [slides][handouts] Chapter 5;
D'eath 2002
Anderson and Gribble 1998;
Cushman & McGarigal 2002;
Grand et al. 2003
LAB: Partial CCA/RDA/MANTEL-- Variance Partitioning Introduction, Analysis and Interpretation
Part 6: Summary and Comparison of Techniques
12/12 Summary and comparison of techniques [slides][handouts]

Chapter 6;
Johnson 1981;
Rextad et al 1988
LAB: CCA/RDA/MANTEL -- Presentation and Discussion
All documents in pdf format require Adobe Acrobat Reader to view.


For more information, please contact:
Dr. Kevin McGarigal
Department of Natural Resources Conservation
University of Massachusetts
304 Holdsworth Natural Resources Center
Box 34210
Amherst, MA 01003
Fax: (413) 545-4358
Phone: (413) 577-0655
Email: mcgarigalk@forwild.umass.edu