Ecological Methods

Students learn how to analyse hypothesis-centred ecological field research projects on plants, animals, and their environment, with emphasis on the appropriate choice and application of statistical techniques for the analysis of ecological data. The course aims at providing the necessary statistical skills for the data analysis of BSc and MSc thesis projects and will enable the students to be able to understand and critically evaluate the analysis of ecological projects, such as described in scientific publications.

After successful completion of this course students are expected to be able to:

• Formulate appropriate null hypotheses for ecological research questions
• Outline the possibilities, limitations and constraints of the different univariate and multivariate statistical tests, and are able to identify alternative solutions
• Select the best statistical tool to test the ecological data at hand
• Analyse ecological data using appropriate statistical procedures
• Interpret the statistical results in an ecologically meaningful sense
• Perform both univariate and multivariate analyses