SC 5: Quantitative Analysis in Plant Community Ecology using R

Friday, August 6, 2021

10:30 AM – 5:00 PM Pacific

Session Organizer(s)

Kyle Palmquist

Marshall University
Huntington, WV, United States

Handout (PDF)

Session Co-organizers: Martin Dovciak, Department of Environmental Biology, State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY, Samuel Jordan, School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, Lisa Kluesner, Wayne National Forest, US Forest Service, Nelsonville, OH, Robert J Smith, Pacific Northwest Research Station, US Forest Service, Portland, OR
Registration Fee: $35

Short courses are available to attendees who signed up in advance and paid an additional a short course fee. If you signed up for this short course, you should have received a direct link to it by email on Thursday.

This 6 hour short course includes a 30 minute break in the middle.

This session will introduce participants to fundamental and selected advanced analytical approaches commonly used in plant community ecology. Topics include both univariate and multivariate approaches, specifically: calculating community diversity metrics, distance and dissimilarity measures, transformations, and the applications of direct and/or indirect ordinations, cluster analysis, indicator species analysis, non-parametric multivariate statistical tests for differences between groups, and data visualization. Short course participants will use one core dataset in an interactive format to practice analytical methods using R (https://www.r-project.org/), an open-source statistical software widely and increasingly used by ecologists. Participants will be exposed to a variety of R packages and functions, and all data, code, and supporting documents will be made available prior to the short course to enhance learning. All participants who have not used R previously will complete a short tutorial beforehand. The short course is co-organized by the executive committee of the Vegetation Section, and the organizing committee represents ecologists from different genders, backgrounds, career stages (student to Associate Professor), and career pathways (academic to government). One goal is to provide opportunities for students and early-career vegetation ecologists from diverse backgrounds to gain important quantitative skills that will accelerate their professional development. As such, the Vegetation Section will cover the costs of the short course for 5 to 10 student and early career participants (depending on final short course costs) and will prioritize funds for applicants from groups currently underrepresented in ecology.

The $35 fee for this short course includes access to the live session and any uploaded supporting documents during and after the conference