The first workshop is an introduction to statistical modelling in R for marine ecologists. It will be run as a series of daily 1-hour sessions over two weeks, from Tuesday to Friday at 10:00 CET from 18-21 April and 25-28 April 2023. The course is intended for participants familiar with R and statistical analysis but who wish to improve their understanding of ecological data analysis. It will include data exploration, wrangling and visualisation, fitting GLMs, and PCA, and will introduce Bayesian multivariate GLMs.
As part of this course, we invite those planning to attend to send us some of their data to use as examples (before 20th March at the latest). These data may have already been published or be unanalysed; you need to tell us what the data comprise and the background to your study, and to be prepared to share your data with the other participants. As part of the workshop, we will discuss study design, data analysis, and statistical interpretation. We may not use all the data sent, but for those we do use, we will provide you with the R-code for completing a full analysis of the data and for producing publication-quality figures.
Course overview
This specialist short course aims to introduce researchers to analyse ecological and environmental data using R. Study design will be discussed, as well as data analysis and statistical interpretation. Sessions will be a blend of interactive demonstrations and short presentations, where learners can ask questions throughout. Attendees will receive R script and datasets and a list of R packages to install.
By the end of the course, participants should be able to:
- Navigate the R environment and use R and RStudio to import data to a data frame.
- Apply data wrangling and exploration techniques to avoid the common pitfalls in tackling a data analysis with different data types.
- Applying statistical modelling methods to ecological data using GLMs.
- Understand and apply alternative approaches to model selection.
Intended Audience
- Postgraduate or post-doctoral level marine ecology researchers who wish to learn how to analyse data in R (though more established researchers are also welcome to attend).
- Applied marine ecologists and analysts with a role in handling and analysing data.
Prior knowledge
- Familiarity with basic statistical techniques.
- Some experience with using R and RStudio.
Venue
Delivered remotely by the Centre For Data Analysis, Modelling and Computational Sciences at the University of 艁贸d藕 using MS Teams.
Timing
- Tuesday 18th April - 10:00 CET
- Wednesday 19th April - 10:00 CET
- Thursday 20th April - 10:00 CET
- Friday 21st April - 10:00 CET
- Tuesday 25th April - 10:00 CET
- Wednesday 26th April - 10:00 CET
- Thursday 27th April - 10:00 CET
- Friday 28th April - 10:00 CET
Contact hours
8 hours
Language
English
Attendance on the course is free, and a certificate of attendance can be issued by the Centre for Data Analysis, Modelling and Computational Sciences if participants complete the course. The number of participants on this course will be capped at 30. To reserve a place, simply email: carl.smith@biol.uni.lodz.pl
Tutor Profiles
Prof. Carl Smith is the Knowledge Transfer Leader at the Centre for Data Analysis, Modelling and Computational Sciences at the University of 艁贸d藕, Poland. Carl is based in the Department of Ecology & Vertebrate Zoology, University of 艁贸d藕 and the Institute of Vertebrate Biology of the Czech Academy of Sciences. He was formerly Reader in Zoology at the University of St Andrews, UK and held lectureships at the University of Leicester, UK and Queen Mary College of the University of London. Before his first lectureship, Carl held a research fellowship at the University of East Anglia, UK, served as an aid worker in Bangladesh, and worked for the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. He completed a PhD on fish ecology at the University of Aberystwyth, UK and is the author of over 130 scientific papers and four books.
Dr Andrea Desiderato is a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Invertebrate Zoology & Hydrobiology of the University of 艁贸d藕, Poland. He has a BSc in Natural Sciences on population dynamics of seahorses (University of Bari, Italy), an MSc in Marine Biology on phylogeography and phylogenetics of Atlantic amphipods (University of Bologna, Italy and University of Aveiro, Portugal) and a PhD in Zoology on phylogenetic diversity and ecology of fouling communities (Federal University of Paran谩, Brazil). He was a visiting scholar at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany and Queen's University Belfast, UK. He is currently working on niche modelling of invasive amphipod species focusing on the molecular, ecological and behavioural adaptations of different lineages.