{"id":282,"date":"2011-11-09T20:46:11","date_gmt":"2011-11-09T09:46:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/?p=282"},"modified":"2011-11-10T18:58:52","modified_gmt":"2011-11-10T07:58:52","slug":"geostatistics-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/?p=282","title":{"rendered":"Geostatistics Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a> Rating:<\/strong> \"★\"\"★\"\"★\"\"☆\"\"☆\"<\/p>\n

Steve McKillup and Melinda Darby Dyar. 2010. Geostatistics Explained: An Introductory Guide for Earth Scientists. Cambridge University Press. ISBN978 0 521 74656 4<\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

We might be living in an era of increased data but that does not mean that we are all equally at home with even fundamental statistics. Those who have tried to work through field experiments in ecology or environmental science will attest to the issues involved so any attempt to reduce this must be welcome (the fact this publication is also in e-book format must be a winner for field situations).<\/p>\n

Initial chapters look at the ideas behind statistics and the gathering of data. It starts with the reasons why we collect data (hopefully evident at this stage of learning!) to the basic of hypothesising and basic data presentation (mainly graphical). Two more chapters explaining the need for experimental design (including cost-effectiveness) and the ideas surrounding ethics leads us into the statistical areas. From this point, the reader is taken more or less through the concepts of statistics from the most fundamental to the more restricted. Since probability is at the heart of statistical tests it’s not surprising to see it first. This chapter covers the basics of probability, Baye’s Theorem and a simple test – chi-squared. Most data we assume follows a normal distribution and so the next two chapters outline both the distribution and the tests comparing samples such as the Z and t tests. Care is taken to distinguish between these two methods and it’s this that sets the book apart. Most just give formulae but here we see what test to use and why. Many of the errors in statistics are not so much a question of\u00a0 mathematical ability but of the statistical “literacy” to choose the right test. A single chapter explaining error types gives way to several discussing the uses and limitations of analysis of variance. Since most of our samples will come from different locations of unknown populations, such material is both significant and useful. If variance is one perspective, correlation and regression is another. Again, there is a careful build-up of ideas linked to s9mple but effective worked examples. Data to this point have been assumed to have a normal distribution. The text moves towards non-normal or non-parametric tests to see what we can learn from such distributions. The final “section” of the text looks at considerably more complex material such as multivariate analysis, sequences and spatial analysis. A concluding chapter leads you through all the tests mentioned in the text highlighting what can be used, where.<\/p>\n

There are numerous statistical texts but most assume you already know what to do and just a formula would be useful. Here, the approach is taken that you don’t know what test you need or you might not even know about the data you’ve gathered. In this case, the authors have written a plain guide with simple examples to explain what you can do and when it is appropriate. Each chapter has some sample questions to get you to think not just about the maths but about the nature of statistical inference. It’s this last part that often goes missing and it’s good to see it here. Overall, this is a very useful text to help the tyro on their way to a more statistically accurate way of handling data.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rating: Steve McKillup and Melinda Darby Dyar. 2010. Geostatistics Explained: An Introductory Guide for Earth Scientists. Cambridge University Press. ISBN978 0 521 74656 4 We might be living in an era of increased data but that does not mean that we are all equally at home with even fundamental statistics. Those who have tried to work through field experiments in ecology or environmental science will attest to the issues involved so any attempt to reduce this must be welcome (the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[58,60,62,61,63,57,59],"class_list":["post-282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-review","tag-analysis","tag-confidence-limits","tag-correlation","tag-probability","tag-regression","tag-statistics","tag-testing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=282"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":304,"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions\/304"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ecogeog.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}