“Advances in Spatial Analysis of Multivariate Ecological Data: Theory and 
Practice”

http://www.prstatistics.com/course/advances-in-spatial-analysis-of-
multivariate-ecological-data-theory-and-practice-mvsp02/

This course is being delivered by Prof. Pierre Legendre who is a leading 
expert in numerical ecology and author of the book titled ‘Numerical 
ecology’

This course will run from 3rd – 7th April at Margam Discovery Centre, Wales.

The course will describe recent methods (concepts and R tools) that can be 
used to analyse spatial patterns in community ecology. The umbrella concept 
of the course is beta diversity, which is the spatial variation of 
communities. These methods are applicable to all types of communities 
(bacteria, plants, animals) sampled along transects, regular grids or 
irregularly distributed sites. The new methods, collectively referred to as 
spatial eigen-function analysis, are grounded into techniques commonly used 
by community ecologists, which will be described first: simple ordination 
(PCA, CA, PCoA), multivariate regression and canonical analysis, 
permutation tests. The choice of dissimilarities that are appropriate for 
community composition data will also be discussed. The focal question is to 
determine how much of the community variation (beta diversity) is due to 
environmental sorting and to community-based processes, including neutral 
processes. Recently developed methods to partition beta diversity in 
different ways will be presented. Extensions will be made to temporal and 
space-time data.

Course content is as follows
Day 1
•       Introduction to data analysis.
•       Ordination in reduced space: principal component analysis (PCA), 
correspondence analysis (CA), principal coordinate analysis (PCoA). 
•       Transformation of species abundance data tables prior to linear 
analyses.
 
Day 2
•       Measures of similarity and distance, especially for community 
composition data.
•       Multiple linear regression. R-square, adjusted R-square, AIC, tests 
of significance. 
•       Polynomial regression. 
•       Partial regression and variation partitioning.
 
Day 3
•       Statistical testing by permutation.
•       Canonical redundancy analysis (RDA) and canonical correspondence 
analysis (CCA). Multivariate analysis of variance by canonical analysis.
•       Forward selection of environmental variables in RDA.

 Day 4 
•       Origin of spatial structures. 
•       Beta diversity partitioning and LCBD indices
•       Replacement and richness difference components of beta diversity.
 
Day 5
•       Spatial modelling: Multi-scale modelling of the spatial structure 
of ecological communities: dbMEM, generalized MEM, and AEM methods. 
•       Community surveys through space and time: testing the space-time 
interaction in repeated surveys.
•       Additional module depending on time – Is the Mantel test useful for 
spatial analysis in ecology and genetics? 

Please email any inquiries to [email protected]

or visit our website www.prstatistics.com

or to book online http://www.prstatistics.com/course/advances-in-spatial-
analysis-of-multivariate-ecological-data-theory-and-practice-mvsp02/

Please feel free to distribute this material anywhere you feel is suitable

Upcoming courses - email for details [email protected]

1.      ADVANCING IN STATISTICAL MODELLING USING R (December 2016, April 
2017, December 2017
http://www.prstatistics.com/course/advancing-statistical-modelling-using-r-
advr05/
http://www.prstatistics.com/course/advancing-statistical-modelling-using-r-
advr06/
2.      SPATIAL ANALYSIS OF ECOLOGICAL DATA USING R (August 2017)
http://www.prstatistics.com/course/spatial-analysis-ecological-data-using-r-
spae05/ 
3.      STABLE ISOTOPE MIXING MODELS USING SIAR, SIBER AND MIXSIAR USING R 
(February 2017)
http://www.prstatistics.com/course/stable-isotope-mixing-models-using-r-
simm03/
4.      GENETIC DATA ANALYSIS USING R (TBC)
5.      BIOINFORMATICS FOR GENETICISTS AND BIOLOGISTS (July 2017)
http://www.prstatistics.com/course/bioinformatics-for-geneticists-and-
biologists-bigb02/
6.      APPLIED BAYESIAN MODELLING FOR ECOLOGISTS AND EPIDEMIOLOGISTS 
(November 2017)
7.      INTRODUCTION TO STATISTICS AND R FOR BIOLOGISTS (April 2017)
http://www.prstatistics.com/course/introduction-to-statistics-and-r-for-
biologists-irfb02/
8.      INTRODUCTION TO PYTHON FOR BIOLOGISTS (TBC)
9.      TIME SERIES MODELS FOR ECOLOGISTS AND CLIMATOLOGISTS (TBC)
10.     ADVANCES IN MULTIVAIRAITE ANALYSIS OF SPATIAL ECOLOGICAL DATA 
(April 2017)
http://www.prstatistics.com/course/advances-in-spatial-analysis-of-
multivariate-ecological-data-theory-and-practice-mvsp02/
11.     ADVANCES IN DNA TAXONOMY (TBC)
12.     INTRODUCTION TO BIOINFORMATICS USING LINUX (TBC)
13.     INTRODUCTION TO BAYESIAN HIERARCHICAL MODELLING
http://www.prstatistics.com/course/introduction-to-bayesian-hierarchical-
modelling-using-r-ibhm02/
14.     LANDSCAPE (POPULATION) GENETIC DATA ANALYSIS USING R (TBC)
15.     PHYLOGENETIC DATA ANALYSIS USING R (TBC)
16.     MODEL BASED MULTIVARIATE ANALYSIS OF ECOLOGICAL DATA USING R 
(January 2017)
http://www.prstatistics.com/course/model-base-multivariate-analysis-of-
abundance-data-using-r-mbmv01/
17.     ADVANCED PYTHON FOR BIOLOGISTS (February 2017)
http://www.prstatistics.com/course/advanced-python-biologists-apyb01/
18.     NETWORK ANAYLSIS FOR ECOLOGISTS USING R (March)
http://www.prstatistics.com/course/network-analysis-ecologists-ntwa01/
19.     GEOMETRIC MORPHOMETRICS USING R (June)
http://www.prstatistics.com/course/geometric-morphometrics-using-r-gmmr01/
20.     INTRODUCTION TO METHODS FOR REMOTE SENSING (July 2017)
21.     ECOLOGICAL NICHE MODELLING (October 2017)
22.     ANIMAL MOVEMENT ECOLOGY (TBC)

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