Multivariate methods for ecologists

Application

Next course occasion will be in October or November 2021. The course is given in two parts. The first part (one week) is compulsory and consists of lectures and exercises, at Ultuna university campus. The second part is optional and consists of two weeks of supervised work with own data, at your home university.

An invitation will be sent out in June or August 2021. We do not accept applications before the invitation is sent, but we can put interested students on the send list. Much more information will be published on this web page after the invitation is sent.

Aims

The course aims to illustrate the application of a number of multivariate methods on ecological data. Following the course, participants should be familiar with different multivariate techniques, and how they can be applied on various types of data. The course will focus on developing an understanding of the application of multivariate techniques, with only a minimum amount of effort placed on comprehending the underlying mathematical detail.

After the course, the students should be able to analyse multivariate ecological data using R.

Contents

A number of ordination and classification procedures will be demonstrated, such as table arrangement, cluster analysis, correspondence analysis (CA), canonical correspondence analysis (CCA), redundancy analysis (RDA), principle components analysis (PCA), partial least square-analysis (PLS) and more. The course literature consists of 10 papers that will be distributed at the start of the course.