Quantitative Wildlife Ecology

• Thinking Quantitatively

• Fear of mathematics

• Uncertainty & the art

• Sampling, experimental design, & analyses

• Presentation & communication

Quantitative Wildlife Ecology

• Thinking Quantitatively– Gaining reliable knowledge

• Logical• Creative• Organized

– May not require statistics, calculus, or other advanced math» Graphical analyses, observations, information theory, etc.

Quantitative Wildlife Ecology

• Have no fear!– It’s all modeling (i.e., understanding relationships)

• Graphical• Observational• Calculus

– Population ecology

• Most is simple math– +, -, x,

Quantitative Wildlife Ecology

• Uncertainty must be recognized– Best guess

• Art or science?– No substitute for experience

• Statistics vs. biological reality– Do no be fooled!

The object is to teach the student to see the land, to understand what he sees and enjoy what he understands--Aldo Leopold

Quantitative Wildlife Ecology

• 2 parts– Sampling & Experimental Design– Analyses

• Graphical• Traditional “stats”• Other techniques

• Which is– More important?– Least understood & taught?

Quantitative Wildlife Ecology

• Worthless without proper presentation– Technical writing & presentation– Recognize uncertainty/variability

Technical Writing

• What

• Why

• How

Technical Writing

• If no one knows or understands what you have done, what good is it!– Present it as clearly & simply as possible!

Technical Writing

• Know the reader/audience– Popular

• Magazine– Field & Stream

– Semi-technical• Trade journal

– Rangelands

– Technical• Scientific journal

– Journal of Wildlife Management

Technical Writing

• Every publication & scientific journal is different– Content & focus– Style– Format

• For this course: Journal of Wildlife Management– CBE Style Manual

Technical Writing

• In general– Clear, concise, & focused– Well-organized– Uniform units

• Do not change• Metric

– Active voice– Proper tense– Review it!

Technical Writing

• Typical sections– Title– Abstract– Introduction– Methods

• Study Area

– Results– Discussion– Literature cited– Other

Technical Writing

• Title– Short– Indicative of manuscript content

Technical Writing

• Abstract– Summary

• Problem studied and/or hypothesis tested• Pertinent methods• Important results & conclusions• Utility of results

– Length restrictions• 3%

Technical Writing

• Introduction– Literature review v. justification

• State the problem or issue• Justify the importance of the problem & need for

study• State the study objectives

– How you will “solve the problem or address the issue”

– Most difficult section to write!

Technical Writing

• Study area– Separate from or part of Methods– Where did you do the study– What was it composed of?

Technical Writing

• Methods– Enough detail so your study can be repeated

exactly• Dates, sampling scheme, duration, experimental

design, & analyses

– Common methods can be cited

– Relate to objectives• Addressed• Order

Technical Writing

• Results– Clear, simple, concise, & organized

• Follow objectives & methods

– Often very “dry”

– Sometimes combined with Discussion (not in JWM!)

Technical Writing

• Results– Do not explain analyses (Methods) or discuss

results (Discussion)

– Describe magnitude of biological effects as well as statistical results

• Do not say “The regression analyses found….”

– Do not omit “negative” or “no differences” results

Technical Writing

• Results– Do not repeat information found in tables &

figures (which are part of the Results section, but found at the end of the manuscript)

– Use tables and/or figures only when they allow results to be presented more clearly & concisely than text

Technical Writing

• Results– Reference tables & figures in text

• (Table 1) not (see Table 1) or “Table 1 shows….”

– Tables & figures must stand alone• Include date & location

Technical Writing

• Discussion– “tell the story” – what did you learn!

• Interpret data• Do data support hypotheses?• Make comparisons to literature• Do not repeat results• Comment on only the most important results• Limit speculation & presentation of new hypotheses• Be synthetic & relate your findings to overall

objectives & hypotheses

– May end with a summary (usually not in JWM!)

Technical Writing

• Management Implications (JWM)– Explain issues important to management &

conservation derived directly from your results• Thing’s a manager can use & apply• Do not restate Results or Discussion

Technical Writing

• Literature cited– Formats vary

• Primary literature*

• Internet• Textbooks• Popular articles• Reports & gray literature• Unpublished data• Personal communications

Technical Writing

• Acknowledgments– Straight forward

• People• Funding & support

Technical Writing

• Other– See guidelines

Data Presentation

• What

• How

• Why

Data Presentation

• Clear & concise

• Measure of uncertainty/variability or fit– ± SE– r2

Data Presentation

• Always provide units– 10 ± 2 deer/ha (mean ± SE)

• Know the audience– Layperson, manager, scientist

Data Presentation

• Text– Presentation outline v. manuscript

• Tables & Figures– Stand alone– Presentation v. manuscript