Applied Statistical Modelling for Ecologists provides a gentle introduction to the essential models of applied statistics: linear models, generalized linear models, mixed and hierarchical models. All models are fit with both a likelihood and a Bayesian approach, using several powerful software packages widely used in research publications: JAGS, NIMBLE, Stan, and TMB. In addition, the foundational method of maximum likelihood is explained in a manner that ecologists can really understand. This book is the successor of the widely used Introduction to WinBUGS for Ecologists (Kéry, Academic Press, 2010). Like its parent, it is extremely effective for both classroom use and self-study, allowing students and researchers alike to quickly learn, understand, and carry out a very wide range of statistical modelling tasks. The examples in Applied Statistical Modelling for Ecologists come from ecology and the environmental sciences, but the underlying statistical models are very widely used by scientists across many disciplines. This book will be useful for anybody who needs to learn and quickly become proficient in statistical modelling, with either a likelihood or a Bayesian focus, and in the model-fitting engines covered, including the three latest packages NIMBLE, Stan, and TMB. - Contains a concise and gentle introduction to probability and applied statistics as needed in ecology and the environmental sciences - Covers the foundations of modern applied statistical modelling - Gives a comprehensive, applied introduction to what currently are the most widely used and most exciting, cutting-edge model fitting software packages: JAGS, NIMBLE, Stan, and TMB - Provides a highly accessible applied introduction to the two dominant methods of fitting parametric statistical models: maximum likelihood and Bayesian posterior inference - Details the principles of model building, model checking and model selection - Adopts a "Rosetta Stone" approach, wherein understanding of one software, and of its associated language, will be greatly enhanced by seeing the analogous code in other engines - Provides all code available for download for students, at https://www.elsevier.com/books-and-journals/book-companion/9780443137150

Introduction to WinBUGS for Ecologists introduces applied Bayesian modeling to ecologists using the highly acclaimed, free WinBUGS software. It offers an understanding of statistical models as abstract representations of the various processes that give rise to a data set. Such an understanding is basic to the development of inference models tailored to specific sampling and ecological scenarios. The book begins by presenting the advantages of a Bayesian approach to statistics and introducing the WinBUGS software. It reviews the four most common statistical distributions: the normal, the uniform, the binomial, and the Poisson. It describes the two different kinds of analysis of variance (ANOVA): one-way and two- or multiway. It looks at the general linear model, or ANCOVA, in R and WinBUGS. It introduces generalized linear model (GLM), i.e., the extension of the normal linear model to allow error distributions other than the normal. The GLM is then extended contain additional sources of random variation to become a generalized linear mixed model (GLMM) for a Poisson example and for a binomial example. The final two chapters showcase two fairly novel and nonstandard versions of a GLMM. The first is the site-occupancy model for species distributions; the second is the binomial (or N-) mixture model for estimation and modeling of abundance. - Introduction to the essential theories of key models used by ecologists - Complete juxtaposition of classical analyses in R and Bayesian analysis of the same models in WinBUGS - Provides every detail of R and WinBUGS code required to conduct all analyses - Companion Web Appendix that contains all code contained in the book and additional material (including more code and solutions to exercises)

This book discusses advanced statistical methods that can be used to analyse ecological data. Most environmental collected data are measured repeatedly over time, or space and this requires the use of GLMM or GAMM methods. The book starts by revising regression, additive modelling, GAM and GLM, and then discusses dealing with spatial or temporal dependencies and nested data.

Applied Hierarchical Modeling in Ecology: Distribution, Abundance, Species Richness offers a new synthesis of the state-of-the-art of hierarchical models for plant and animal distribution, abundance, and community characteristics such as species richness using data collected in metapopulation designs. These types of data are extremely widespread in ecology and its applications in such areas as biodiversity monitoring and fisheries and wildlife management. This first volume explains static models/procedures in the context of hierarchical models that collectively represent a unified approach to ecological research, taking the reader from design, through data collection, and into analyses using a very powerful class of models. Applied Hierarchical Modeling in Ecology, Volume 1 serves as an indispensable manual for practicing field biologists, and as a graduate-level text for students in ecology, conservation biology, fisheries/wildlife management, and related fields. - Provides a synthesis of important classes of models about distribution, abundance, and species richness while accommodating imperfect detection - Presents models and methods for identifying unmarked individuals and species - Written in a step-by-step approach accessible to non-statisticians and provides fully worked examples that serve as a template for readers' analyses - Includes companion website containing data sets, code, solutions to exercises, and further information

Applied Hierarchical Modeling in Ecology: Analysis of Distribution, Abundance and Species Richness in R and BUGS, Volume Two: Dynamic and Advanced Models provides a synthesis of the state-of-the-art in hierarchical models for plant and animal distribution, also focusing on the complex and more advanced models currently available. The book explains all procedures in the context of hierarchical models that represent a unified approach to ecological research, thus taking the reader from design, through data collection, and into analyses using a very powerful way of synthesizing data. - Makes ecological modeling accessible to people who are struggling to use complex or advanced modeling programs - Synthesizes current ecological models and explains how they are inter-connected - Contains numerous examples throughout the book, walking the reading through scenarios with both real and simulated data - Provides an ideal resource for ecologists working in R software and in BUGS software for more flexible Bayesian analyses

Introduction and background; Exploratory data analysis and graphics; Deterministic functions for ecological modeling; Probability and stochastic distributions for ecological modeling; Stochatsic simulation and power analysis; Likelihood and all that; Optimization and all that; Likelihood examples; Standar statistics revisited; Modeling variance; Dynamic models.

A guide to data collection, modeling and inference strategies for biological survey data using Bayesian and classical statistical methods.This book describes a general and flexible framework for modeling and inference in ecological systems based on hierarchical models, with a strict focus on the use of probability models and parametric inference. Hierarchical models represent a paradigm shift in the application of statistics to ecological inference problems because they combine explicit models of ecological system structure or dynamics with models of how ecological systems are observed. The principles of hierarchical modeling are developed and applied to problems in population, metapopulation, community, and metacommunity systems. The book provides the first synthetic treatment of many recent methodological advances in ecological modeling and unifies disparate methods and procedures.The authors apply principles of hierarchical modeling to ecological problems, including * occurrence or occupancy models for estimating species distribution* abundance models based on many sampling protocols, including distance sampling* capture-recapture models with individual effects* spatial capture-recapture models based on camera trapping and related methods* population and metapopulation dynamic models* models of biodiversity, community structure and dynamics - Wide variety of examples involving many taxa (birds, amphibians, mammals, insects, plants) - Development of classical, likelihood-based procedures for inference, as well as Bayesian methods of analysis - Detailed explanations describing the implementation of hierarchical models using freely available software such as R and WinBUGS - Computing support in technical appendices in an online companion web site