Basic Ecological Concepts and Data in R
Preface
This book provides an activity-based approach introduction to the science and practice of ecology. It is designed to form the basis of an undergraduate general ecology course. It includes real-world assessment activities, and so answer keys are not generally available, even if they might be appropriate in some situations.
Each chapter provides,
- links to background information in the form of a video lecture, peer-reviewed publications, and sometimes other sources,
- one or more writing assignments, and
- data exploration and modeling.
Each chapter mixes (i) ecological content and (ii) coding practices. Students will get the most out of the content if they understand and accept this from the start. Avoiding one or the other reduces their ability to understand, appreciate, and use both.
Guidance
Use these tips to help reduce frustration and make things work better:
- The book should be read and the code implemented in sequence. For example, you should complete chapter 1 before chapter 2, complete chapter 2 before chapter 3, and so on. That is for two reasons. First, you will learn things about R and your computer in earlier chapters that you may need to know for later chapters. This is especially true for the first few chapters. Second, you will gain ecological knowledge in earlier chapters that enrich your experience in later chapters.
- When the text provides an enumerated list or numbered bullet items (e.g., 1, 2, 3 or a, b, c), it is usually very important or even essential to do these steps in sequence. There will be times that it is impossible to succeed unless you do the steps in sequence.
- When the text provides a simple, unnumbered list, it is usually not important to consider these items as representing a sequence.
- I included a few sections entitled Overthinking. I stole this idea from Richard McElreath (McElreath 2020), and these are sections that you can skip on the first read, and are not essentially for getting things to work. They provide deeper, more detailed explanations than is typically required.
Other books
My other books include A Primer of Ecology using R and A Primer of Ecosystem Modeling. The former (Primer of Ecology) is designed primarily for beginning graduate students as a primer to theory in population and community ecology. It was first published with Springer in 2009, and the current GitHub version is quite updated. I use the latter (ecosystem modeling) when I co-instruct a graduate course led by colleagues who are real ecosystem ecologists (Drs. Melany Fisk, Mike Vanni, and Lesley Knoll).
Mazel tov!