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50 things you should know about the environment
From the icy poles to the evergreen rainforests, life has found a way to flourish in nearly every environment on Earth. This book explores the startling discoveries of new life forms in extreme environments, such as the strange worlds of the ocean depths. Whilst marveling the world around us, it also confronts the human impact on the environment. The mounting evidence for global warming is explored and challenges us to work towards a more sustainable future. Packed with facts, diagrams, infographics and photos, this is the perfect introduction to the wonder and intrigue of our environment.
Book
How much does the typical ecological meta‐analysis overestimate the true mean effect size?
Many primary research studies in ecology are underpowered, providing very imprecise estimates of effect size. Meta‐analyses partially mitigate this imprecision by combining data from different studies. But meta‐analytic estimates of mean effect size may still remain imprecise, particularly if the meta‐analysis includes a small number of studies. Imprecise, large‐magnitude estimates of mean effect size from small meta‐analyses likely would shrink if additional studies were conducted (regression towards the mean). Here, I propose a way to estimate and correct this regression to the mean, using meta‐meta‐analysis (meta‐analysis of meta‐analyses). Hierarchical random effects meta‐meta‐analysis shrinks estimated mean effect sizes from different meta‐analyses towards the grand mean, bringing those estimated means closer on average to their unknown true values. The intuition is that, if a meta‐analysis reports a mean effect size much larger in magnitude than that reported by other meta‐analyses, that large mean effect size likely is an overestimate. This intuition holds even if different meta‐analyses of different topics have different true mean effect sizes. Drawing on a compilation of data from hundreds of ecological meta‐analyses, I find that the typical (median) ecological meta‐analysis overestimates the absolute magnitude of the true mean effect size by ~10%. Some small ecological meta‐analyses overestimate the magnitude of the true mean effect size by >50%. Meta‐meta‐analysis is a promising tool for improving the accuracy of meta‐analytic estimates of mean effect size, particularly estimates based on just a few studies. Meta‐analytic estimates of mean effect size can be imprecise and overestimate effect magnitude, particularly if the meta‐analysis includes few studies. Here, I use meta‐meta‐analysis (meta‐analysis of meta‐analyses) to quantify and correct for overestimation of the magnitude of mean effect sizes in ecological meta‐analyses. The typical (median) ecological meta‐analysis overestimates the magnitude of the mean effect size by ~10%, and some meta‐analyses overestimate the magnitude of the mean effect size by >50%.
Journal Article
You are never alone
\"[This] picture book ... explores how humans are inextricably connected to nature\"--Provided by publisher.
Book
Registered Reports: A new chapter at Ecology & Evolution
Ecology & Evolution has published its first Registered Report and offers the perspective of the editor, author, and student on the publication process.Ecology & Evolution has published its first Registered Report and offers the perspective of the editor, author, and student on the publication process.
Journal Article
You are stardust
Introduces readers to the extensive and surprising ways in which they're connected to the natural world around them.
Book
VertNet: A New Model for Biodiversity Data Sharing
Collectively, nearly 4.5 million occurrence records from 867,000 distinct locations have been georeferenced following best practices [13] by leveraging geographic resources and expertise at each institution. Since 2003, at least 175 undergraduates and 282 higher level researchers from 161 institutions in 40 countries have been trained directly through project activities, including 14 international georeferencing workshops. Acknowledgments We'd like to thank National Biological Information Infrastructure for support of the VertNet project and the VertNet Steering Committee for leadership and guidance. Besides the authors listed in the authorship list, the Steering Committee includes Hank Bart, John Bates, Gladys Cotter, James Hanken, Craig Moritz, Nancy Simmons, and Linda Trueb.
Journal Article
Ecology : a very short introduction
\"Understanding how our living environment works is essentially a study of ecological systems. Ecology is the science of how organisms interact with each other and with their environment, and how such interactions create self-organising communities and ecosystems. This science touches us all. The food we eat, the water we drink, the natural resources we use, our physical and mental health, and much of our cultural heritage are to a large degree products of ecological interactions of organisms and their environment. This Very Short Introduction celebrates the centrality of ecology in our lives. Jaboury Ghazoul explores how ecology has evolved rapidly from natural history to become a predictive science that explains how the natural world works, and which guides environmental policy and management decisions. Drawing on a range of examples, he shows how ecological science can be applied to management and conservation, including the extent to which theory has shaped practice. Ecological science has also shaped social and cultural perspectives on the environment, a process that influences politics of the environment. Ghazoul concludes by considering the future of ecology, particularly in the light of current and future environmental challenges.\"--www.bookdepository.com.
Book
A user‐friendly guide to using distance measures to compare time series in ecology
Time series are a critical component of ecological analysis, used to track changes in biotic and abiotic variables. Information can be extracted from the properties of time series for tasks such as classification (e.g., assigning species to individual bird calls); clustering (e.g., clustering similar responses in population dynamics to abrupt changes in the environment or management interventions); prediction (e.g., accuracy of model predictions to original time series data); and anomaly detection (e.g., detecting possible catastrophic events from population time series). These common tasks in ecological research all rely on the notion of (dis‐) similarity, which can be determined using distance measures. A plethora of distance measures have been described, predominantly in the computer and information sciences, but many have not been introduced to ecologists. Furthermore, little is known about how to select appropriate distance measures for time‐series‐related tasks. Therefore, many potential applications remain unexplored. Here, we describe 16 properties of distance measures that are likely to be of importance to a variety of ecological questions involving time series. We then test 42 distance measures for each property and use the results to develop an objective method to select appropriate distance measures for any task and ecological dataset. We demonstrate our selection method by applying it to a set of real‐world data on breeding bird populations in the UK and discuss other potential applications for distance measures, along with associated technical issues common in ecology. Our real‐world population trends exhibit a common challenge for time series comparisons: a high level of stochasticity. We demonstrate two different ways of overcoming this challenge, first by selecting distance measures with properties that make them well suited to comparing noisy time series and second by applying a smoothing algorithm before selecting appropriate distance measures. In both cases, the distance measures chosen through our selection method are not only fit‐for‐purpose but are consistent in their rankings of the population trends. The results of our study should lead to an improved understanding of, and greater scope for, the use of distance measures for comparing ecological time series and help us answer new ecological questions.
Journal Article
Coastal habitats
Introduces coastal habitats, covering such topics as landforms, waves, currents, estuaries, coral reefs, plants and animals, and the threats posed by pollution, overfishing, and global warming.
Book