Environmental Conservation 602 - Analysis of Environmental Data

This course provides students with an understanding of basic statistical concepts critical to the proper use and understanding of statistics in ecology and conservation science and prepares students for subsequent ECO courses in ecological modeling. The lecture (required for all ECO Master's level graduate students) covers foundational concepts in statistical modeling (emphasis is on conceptual underpinnings of statistics not methodology, with a focus on defining statistical models and the major inference paradigms in use today), basic study design concepts (emphasis is on confronting practical issues associated with real-world ecological study designs and statistical modeling), and lays out the 'landscape' of statistical methods for ecological modeling; emphasis is on the conceptual underpinnings of statistical modeling instead of methodology, with a focus on defining.