Practical Field Ecology A Project Guide

by Wheater, C. Philip; Bell, James R.; Cook, Penny A.

• ISBN13: 9780470694299
• ISBN10: 0470694297
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-06-20
• Publisher: Wiley

Summary

This book introduces experimental design and data analysis / interpretation as well as field monitoring skills for both plants and animals. Clearly structured throughout and written in a student-friendly manner, the main emphasis of the book concentrates on the techniques required to design a field based ecological survey and shows how to execute an appropriate sampling regime. The book evaluates appropriate methods, including the problems associated with various techniques and their inherent flaws (e.g. low sample sizes, large amount of field or laboratory work, high cost etc). This provides a resource base outlining details from the planning stage, into the field, guiding through sampling and finally through organism identification in the laboratory and computer based data analysis and interpretation. The text is divided into twelve distinct chapters. The first chapter covers planning, including health and safety together with information on a variety of statistical techniques for examining and analysing data. Following a chapter dealing with site characterisation and general aspects of species identification, subsequent chapters describe the techniques used to survey and census particular groups of organisms. The final chapter covers interpreting and presenting data and writing up the research. The emphasis here is on appropriate wording of interpretation and structure and content of the report.

Author Biography

C. Philip Wheater Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK James R. Bell Rothamsted Research, Hertfordshire, UK Penny A. Cook Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK

Table of Contents

Tables	p. xi
Figures	p. xiii
Boxes	p. xvii
Case Studies	p. xix
Preface	p. xxi
Acknowledgements	p. xxiii
Preparation	p. 1
Choosing a topic for study	p. 3
Ecological research questions	p. 4
Monitoring individual species and groups of species	p. 4
Monitoring species richness	p. 5
Monitoring population sizes and density	p. 5
Monitoring community structure	p. 6
Monitoring behaviour	p. 6
A note of caution	p. 6
Creating aims, objectives and hypotheses	p. 7
Reviewing the literature	p. 8
Primary literature	p. 9
Secondary literature	p. 9
Other sources of information	p. 9
Search terms	p. 10
Reading papers	p. 10
Practical considerations	p. 11
Legal aspects	p. 11
Health and safety issues	p. 12
Implementation	p. 13
Time management	p. 16
Project design and data management	p. 18
Designing and setting up experiments and surveys	p. 20
Types of data	p. 20
Sampling designs	p. 22
Planning statistical analysis	p. 28
Choosing sampling methods	p. 33
Summary	p. 34
Monitoring site characteristics	p. 35
Site selection	p. 35
Site characterisation	p. 36
Habitat mapping	p. 36
Examination of landscape scale	p. 41
Measuring microclimatic variables	p. 42
Monitoring substrates	p. 45
Monitoring water	p. 51
Other physical attributes	p. 54
Measuring biological attributes	p. 56
Identification	p. 58
Sampling static organisms	p. 67
Sampling techniques for static organisms	p. 70
Quadrat sampling	p. 73
Pin-frames	p. 83
Transects	p. 84
Distribution of static organisms	p. 88
Forestry techniques	p. 90
Sampling mobile organisms	p. 95
General issues	p. 96
Distribution of mobile organisms	p. 97
Direct observation	p. 97
Behaviour	p. 98
Indirect methods	p. 103
Capture techniques	p. 104
Marking individuals	p. 106
Radio-tracking	p. 108
Invertebrates	p. 111
Direct observation	p. 112
Indirect methods	p. 114
Capture techniques	p. 115
Marking individuals	p. 117
Capturing aquatic invertebrates	p. 121
Netting	p. 123
Suction sampling	p. 127
Benthic coring	p. 128
Drags, dredges and grabs	p. 128
Wet extraction	p. 129
Artificial substrate samplers	p. 131
Baited traps	p. 132
Capturing soil-living invertebrates	p. 133
Dry sieving	p. 133
Floatation and phase-separation	p. 134
Tullgren funnels as a method of dry extraction	p. 134
Chemical extraction	p. 137
Electrical extraction	p. 138
Capturing ground-active invertebrates	p. 139
Pitfall traps	p. 139
Suction samplers	p. 148
Emergence traps	p. 150
Capturing invertebrates from plants	p. 152
Pootering	p. 153
Sweep netting	p. 154
Beating	p. 156
Fogging	p. 156
Capturing airborne invertebrates	p. 158
Sticky traps	p. 161
Using attractants	p. 162
Refuges	p. 165
Flight interception (window and malaise) traps	p. 165
Light traps	p. 167
Rotary traps	p. 172
Water traps	p. 172
Fish	p. 174
Direct observation	p. 176
Indirect methods	p. 176
Capture techniques	p. 177
Marking individuals	p. 181
Amphibians	p. 184
Direct observation	p. 186
Indirect methods	p. 187
Capture techniques	p. 187
Marking individuals	p. 192
Reptiles	p. 193
Direct observation	p. 193
Indirect methods	p. 194
Capture techniques	p. 195
Marking individuals	p. 199
Birds	p. 200
Direct observation	p. 201
Indirect methods	p. 209
Capture techniques	p. 211
Marking individuals	p. 213
Mammals	p. 216
Direct observation	p. 217
Indirect methods	p. 219
Capture techniques	p. 225
Marking individuals	p. 233
Analysing and interpreting information	p. 235
Keys to tests	p. 238
Exploring and describing data	p. 244
Transforming and screening data	p. 244
Spatial and temporal distributions	p. 252
Population estimation techniques: densities and population sizes	p. 252
Richness and diversity	p. 256
Similarity, dissimilarity and distance coefficients	p. 258
Recording descriptive statistics	p. 261
Testing hypotheses using basic statistical tests and simple general linear models	p. 261
Differences between samples	p. 265
Relationships between variables	p. 269
Associations between frequency distributions	p. 274
More advanced general linear models for predictive analysis	p. 276
Multiple regression	p. 276
Analysis of covariance and multivariate analysis of variance	p. 277
Discriminant function analysis	p. 279
Generalized linear models	p. 280
Extensions of the generalized linear model	p. 285
Statistical methods to examine pattern and structure in communities: classification, indicator species and ordination	p. 286
Classification	p. 287
Indicator species analysis	p. 292
Ordination	p. 294
Presenting the information	p. 305
Structure	p. 306
Title	p. 307
Abstract	p. 307
Acknowledgements	p. 308
Contents	p. 308
Introduction	p. 309
Methods	p. 310
Results	p. 311
Discussion	p. 316
References	p. 317
Appendices	p. 321
Writing style	p. 321
Tense	p. 324
Numbers	p. 324
Abbreviations	p. 325
Punctuation	p. 327
Choice of font	p. 328
Common mistakes	p. 329
Computer files	p. 331
Summary	p. 331
References	p. 333
Glossary of statistical terms	p. 345
Index	p. 351
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