Adam, Crawley 2002 Statistical Computing: An Introduction to Data Analysis using S-Plus seems to me to afford a comparable understanding to Sokal & Rohlf and to include much newer methodology including S/R. I cannot however compare it to Crawley's big R book, which I take it does not suit your needs. Crawley 2002 is what I would use to replace Zar or Sokal & Rohlf for a biostats class. It does not assume much basic stats and covers ANOVA, regression and glm pretty well, including a lot of explanation.
The two books by Zuur et al cover a lot of very modern ground with lots of insight, but not always on foundational issues. For a very solid mathematical approach to multivariate stats in ecology, you might take to the island Legendre & Legendre 1998 Numerical Ecology. The island is the only place you are likely to work through its 850 matrix-rich pages. Except that I have almost memorized it by now, I'd consider Venables and Ripley 2002 Modern Applied Statistics with S, but it makes big assumptions about your prior familiarity with basic stats. Patrick Foley [email protected] ________________________________________ From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news [[email protected]] On Behalf Of Adam T. Ford [[email protected]] Sent: Friday, April 24, 2009 7:56 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [ECOLOG-L] The last stats book on earth. Hello all, If you were stuck on a desert island (with a laptop and a bunch of data) and could only bring 1 stats book, which one would it be? I am looking for a good, all-around stats book that describes most of the commonly used tests,how to interpret software results, and what the assumptions of each test are. I find Zar is a bit limited in scope for all its detail and Crawley's R book doesnt give me details on the assumptions etc of each test. Sokal and Rohlf is closer to what Im looking for but perhaps there are newer texts available now. All opinions appreciated! Thanks, Adam T. Ford Wildlife Research Associate Banff Wildlife Crossings Project Western Transportation Institute-MSU Bozeman Banff National Park PO Box 900 Banff, AB T1L 1K2 Canada
