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 six 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.

Table of Contents:
Tables xi Figures xiii Boxes xvii Case Studies xix Preface xxi Acknowledgements xxiii 1 Preparation 1 Choosing a topic for study 3 Ecological research questions 4 Monitoring individual species and groups of species 4 Monitoring species richness 5 Monitoring population sizes and density 5 Monitoring community structure 6 Monitoring behaviour 6 A note of caution 6 Creating aims, objectives and hypotheses 7 Reviewing the literature 8 Primary literature 9 Secondary literature 9 Other sources of information 9 Search terms 10 Reading papers 10 Practical considerations 11 Legal aspects 11 Health and safety issues 12 Implementation 13 Time management 16 Project design and data management 18 Designing and setting up experiments and surveys 20 Types of data 20 Sampling designs 22 Planning statistical analysis 28 Choosing sampling methods 33 Summary 34 2 Monitoring site characteristics 35 Site selection 35 Site characterisation 36 Habitat mapping 36 Examination of landscape scale 41 Measuring microclimatic variables 42 Monitoring substrates 45 Monitoring water 51 Other physical attributes 54 Measuring biological attributes 56 Identification 58 3 Sampling static organisms 67 Sampling techniques for static organisms 70 Quadrat sampling 73 Pin-frames 83 Transects 84 Distribution of static organisms 88 Forestry techniques 90 4 Sampling mobile organisms 95 General issues 96 Distribution of mobile organisms 97 Direct observation 97 Behaviour 98 Indirect methods 103 Capture techniques 104 Marking individuals 106 Radio-tracking 108 Invertebrates 111 Direct observation 112 Indirect methods 114 Capture techniques 115 Marking individuals 117 Capturing aquatic invertebrates 121 Netting 123 Suction sampling 127 Benthic coring 128 Drags, dredges and grabs 128 Wet extraction 129 Artificial substrate samplers 131 Baited traps 132 Capturing soil-living invertebrates 133 Dry sieving 133 Floatation and phase-separation 134 Tullgren funnels as a method of dry extraction 134 Chemical extraction 137 Electrical extraction 138 Capturing ground-active invertebrates 139 Pitfall traps 139 Suction samplers 148 Emergence traps 150 Capturing invertebrates from plants 152 Pootering 153 Sweep netting 154 Beating 156 Fogging 156 Capturing airborne invertebrates 158 Sticky traps 161 Using attractants 162 Refuges 165 Flight interception (window and malaise) traps 165 Light traps 167 Rotary traps 172 Water traps 172 Fish 174 Direct observation 176 Indirect methods 176 Capture techniques 177 Marking individuals 181 Amphibians 184 Direct observation 186 Indirect methods 187 Capture techniques 187 Marking individuals 192 Reptiles 193 Direct observation 193 Indirect methods 194 Capture techniques 195 Marking individuals 199 Birds 200 Direct observation 201 Indirect methods 209 Capture techniques 211 Marking individuals 213 Mammals 216 Direct observation 217 Indirect methods 219 Capture techniques 225 Marking individuals 233 5 Analysing and interpreting information 235 Keys to tests 238 Exploring and describing data 244 Transforming and screening data 244 Spatial and temporal distributions 252 Population estimation techniques: densities and population sizes 252 Richness and diversity 256 Similarity, dissimilarity and distance coefficients 258 Recording descriptive statistics 261 Testing hypotheses using basic statistical tests and simple general linear models 261 Differences between samples 265 Relationships between variables 269 Associations between frequency distributions 274 More advanced general linear models for predictive analysis 276 Multiple regression 276 Analysis of covariance and multivariate analysis of variance 277 Discriminant function analysis 279 Generalized linear models 280 Extensions of the generalized linear model 285 Statistical methods to examine pattern and structure in communities: classification, indicator species and ordination 286 Classification 287 Indicator species analysis 292 Ordination 294 6 Presenting the information 305 Structure 306 Title 307 Abstract 307 Acknowledgements 308 Contents 308 Introduction 309 Methods 310 Results 311 Discussion 316 References 317 Appendices 321 Writing style 321 Tense 324 Numbers 324 Abbreviations 325 Punctuation 327 Choice of font 328 Common mistakes 329 Computer files 331 Summary 331 References 333 Appendix 1 Glossary of statistical terms 345 Index 351