MB5390:03
Multivariate Methods in Marine Biology
Townsville
Prerequisites: BS2001 (MB2060 or MB5003) MB5300
26 lectures, 30 hours practicals. December intensive mode.
Available to MSc/PostgraduateDiploma and PhD students.
Staff: Dr M Sheaves.
The subject will provide a conceptual explanation of multivariate techniques commonly used in the ecological and biological literature. It will address the nature of the questions that can be answered with techniques and will stress how to present the results and interpret the information biologically.
Learning Objectives:
- a conceptual understanding of multivariate techniques commonly used by biologists;
- an understanding of why multivariate techniques are used by biologists and ecologists and the types of questions that can be answered with these techniques;
- the computational skills to make decisions about the analysis of multivariate datasets using complex and powerful computer packages;
- the skills to graphically present and interpret the analyses in a biological context for the biological and ecological literature;
- an understanding of where and when these techniques can be used to examine biological data; an objective that will be illustrated by use of the recent literature and current research programs.
Assessment by two laboratory exercises (15% each); assignments (70%).
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