Practical statistics for field biology

Provides an excellent introductory text for students on the principles and methods of statistical analysis in the life sciences, helping them choose and analyse statistical tests for their own problems and present their findings. An understanding of statistical principles and methods is essential for any scientist but is particularly important for those in the life sciences. The field biologist faces very particular problems and challenges with statistics as ""real-life"" situations such as collecting insects with a sweep net or counting seagulls on a cliff face can hardly be expect

Cover; Contents; Title Page; Copyright; Preface; 1 Introduction; 1.1 What do we mean by statistics?; 1.2 Why is statistics necessary?; 1.3 Statistics in field biology; 1.4 The limitations of statistics; 1.5 The purpose of this text; 2 Measurement and Sampling Concepts; 2.1 Populations, samples and observations; 2.2 Counting things -- the sampling unit; 2.3 Random sampling; 2.4 Random numbers; 2.5 Independence; 2.6 Statistics and parameters; 2.7 Descriptive and inferential statistics; 2.8 Parametric and non-parametric statistics; 3 Processing Data; 3.1 Scales of measurement.

3.2 The nominal scale3.3 The ordinal scale; 3.4 The interval scale; 3.5 The ratio scale; 3.6 Conversion of interval observations to an ordinal scale; 3.7 Derived variables; 3.8 The precision of observations; 3.9 How precise should we be?; 3.10 The frequency table; 3.11 Aggregating frequency classes; 3.12 Frequency distribution of count observations; 3.13 Dispersion; 3.14 Bivariate data; 4 Presenting Data; 4.1 Introduction; 4.2 Dot plot or line plot; 4.3 Bar graph; 4.4 Histogram; 4.5 Frequency polygon and frequency curve; 4.6 Scattergram (scatter plot); 4.7 Circle or pie graph.

5 Measuring the Average5.1 What …