Workshop on
Economic and Ecological Impacts of Invasive Alien Species
Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata
Asia Pacific Forest Invasive Species Network
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Mapping species distribution
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Objective: Generate publication quality distribution maps of species using QGIS
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Reason: So, you have finally recorded the locations and impacts of the target invasive species, done all the research, and are now very excited to share your results! You've also built the story and even looked up the journal. But before you submit to your favourite journal, there is one more hurdle for you to cross. You have to prepare a nice publication quality map of the species distribution. Unfortunately, your nice presentation in your lab will not help you anymore in this endeavour.
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This workshop envisages to provide an exposure to the tools and techniques to generate publication quality maps of the distribution of species. And we are going to achieve this using a free geospatial software. It’s our objective to have you familiarized with these techniques and voilà, you are ready to cross the final hurdle towards your great publication.
Tutorial sessions
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Visualization of multivariate niche space
Objective: Visualization of ecological niche using R
Reason: An ecological niche of a species is the n-dimensional space of environmental variables (such as climatic variables) that allows the species to maintain a self-sustaining population. Niche visualization enables statistical comparison of ecological niches between species or populations of same species in different habitats. However, to enable visualization of the niche in a bivariate plot, reduction of dimensionality is essential.
The statistical software R equipped with different packages is an extremely powerful tool to do the required analysis. This workshop will expose the participants to the functionality of one such package, Ecospat. The workshop will demonstrate the specific steps necessary to generate the bivariate plot of climatic niche space.
Interactive session on applied statistics
Objective: Encourage use of appropriate statistical tools for data analysis
Reason: Looking for a start-up towards analyzing your self-collected data? You simply can’t afford to be wary of tasks involving mathematical and statistical applications since ecological research is increasingly becoming quantitative. The majority of statistical pitfalls result from inappropriate use of statistical techniques and/or incorrect interpretation of output, despite correct numerical calculations.
This workshop session will deal with real data (field/lab) supplied by YOU and will focus on simple solutions to these problems. Interested participants will need to submit their data beforehand (download the sample data format). Selected problems will be addressed, to the extent possible, regarding the application of proper statistical techniques and interpretation of output.