PLB/ZOOL 444 - Ecology and Analysis of Communities
Spring 2008 Semester - 4 hours
Floating marsh "flotant", southern Louisiana
Click here to download the course syllabus
Homework #2 information (there will be a total of 3 EXCEL files and one WORD file with DECODA instructions).
You may use either of the following files for your NMDS exercise. The first file contains data from a weedy plant dataset compiled from numerous agricultural fields in the Southeast and Midwest (courtesy of Dr. Gibson and Karla Gage). The environmental variables that can be tested in the vector fitting are latitude and longitude. The second file contains vegetation data collected along an altitudinal gradient at Mt. Field in central Tasmania, Australia (courtesy of Dr. Minchin). All of the variables in the environmental worksheet should be included in the vector fitting analysis.
Anosim_exercise1.xls (See note below)
Gagnon & Platt_2008_Ecology.pdf
The Anosim_exercise dataset is from the Congaree Swamp National Park in South Carolina. This park contains the largest remaining tract of old-growth bottomland hardwood forest. The tree data have been collected from a number of plots scattered randomly through this floodplain. The a priori groups represent ridges (3), bottomland flats (2) , and backswamps (1), which differ hydrologically. You are going to test whether there is statistically significant differences in composition among the groups using ANOSIM and then compare your findings from that analysis with a cluster analysis.
Lectures and Papers
Introduction to communities.ppt
History of community concept.ppt
Interspecific Competition & Niches.ppt
Interspecific Competition_experiments.ppt
Interspecific Interactions.ppt
Labs