Data analysis and modelling in plant demography
Term: 22 to 25 March
Duration: 4 days
ECTS credits: 6
Tutors: Tomáš Herben, Zuzana Münzbergová
Prerequisites: plant population biology (e.g. Jonathan Silvertown's textbook),
essentials in data analysis
Practical information
- The course begins on Wednesday 22 March, 9,30
- Location: Charles University, Faculty of Science, Viničná 7, 2nd floor (left),
room B234. It is close to the metro (line C, red) station I.P. Pavlova (when
leaving the metro turn left, cross a road and follow the Katerinska street
- for more info see the
map here; the red open square indicates the place).
- The last lecture will take place on Saturday, 25 March in the afternoon
(approximate end at four o'clock)
- Please bring with you your notebooks (computers...) if possible! Software: EXCEL
will do most of the job.
- Sleeping-bag accommodation:
- please let us know on Friday 17 March at the latest if you are interested
in the sleeping bag accommodation beginning with Tuesday/Wednesday night
(i.e. arriving on Tuesday afternoon evening), so that we can arrange where
to meet and give you the keys etc.
- if you intend to stay overnight beginning with Wednesday, we appreciate
if you let us know in advance as well, but all practical things will be
arranged only after you arrive.
The aim of this course is to provide an overview of core techniques in the
following areas:
- use of basic modelling techniques in plant population biology and their
application in conservation and management
- statistical analysis of typical data sets in plant population biology
- It also aims to teach the participants essentials necessary to use Matlab
for data analysis and modelling in plant population biology
The course will have both theoretical (lectures on data analysis and modelling;
mornings) and practical (analysis and modelling of data; afternoons) parts.
The core of the course will be the practicals. The practicals will be based
on a library of (simple) Matlab scripts
for data analysis and modelling. The students will be encouraged to use these
scripts to develop tools tailored to their own data. The final part of the course
will be writing a short report on a chosen problem from modelling/data analysis,
which will be presented at the final session.
The course is intended primarily for PhD. students in ecology, perhaps early
in their study; MSc. students are also welcome (ECTS credits can be obtained
after completing the course). The primary stress of the course is on the data
analysis and applied modelling, not on the theory (but we do teach basic concepts
on which the data analysis and modelling is based). Therefore it is intended
for people having or planning to have their own data. The students are encouraged
to bring their own data on plant population dynamics (even when incomplete).
The choice of methods and approaches will be based on the problems and techniques
listed in our manual on data analysis in population biology (Herben a Münzbergová:
Data analysis
in plant ecology by example - data on plant population biology - sorry
no English version yet, but the table of contents in English is here).
We will be teaching the following topics:
- construction of population projection matrices, criticism of collected
data
- matrix modelling of population growth, stable age distribution, growth rate
and its variation, mean life span
- elasticity analysis, contribution of individual transitions to the population
growth rate, identification of "critical" transitions
- criticism of matrix models, reliability and constraints
- use of matrix models in specific cases: conservation of rare species, managing
invasive species
- statistical techniques used to analyze data for matrix construction: analysis
of natality and mortality: logistic regression, survival analysis, analysis
of data on seed production, analysis of data on germination and seedling survival
A syllabus of a similar course is available here.
Syllabus of this course will be available soon.
The course is in English. It is open to students from other universities. The
course is free of charge; we can arrange simple (sleeping-bag type) accommodation
if needed.
Basic texts
- Caswell H.: Matrix Population Models: Construction, Analysis, and Interpretation.
- Gibson, D. J. 2002. Methods in comparative plant population ecology. Oxford
University Press, Oxford.
- Scheiner S.M. & Gurevitch J. (1993): Design and analysis of ecological
experiments. Chapman & Hall, New York.
- Herben T. a Münzbergová Z.: Zpracování
geobotanických dat v příkladech - Část II. Demografická data
Contact
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