Spatial Phylogenetics and the Bayesian Phylogenetic Mixed Model (BPMM01) – Applications for Marine Mammal Research
Spatial Phylogenetics and the Bayesian Phylogenetic Mixed Model (BPMM01)<https://prstats.org/course/spatial-phylogenetics-and-the-bayesian-phylogenetic-mixed-model-pmm-bpmm01/?utm_source=chatgpt.com> Delivered by Dr Ignacio Morales-Castilla, a biogeographer and macroecologist whose research integrates ecological, evolutionary and biogeographical approaches to understand biodiversity patterns, community structure, niche evolution and species distributions. His work includes integrating phylogenetic, functional and geographic information into ecological models. Learn how to integrate phylogenetic relationships, spatial data and Bayesian mixed modelling in R to investigate ecological and evolutionary patterns while accounting for the shared evolutionary history of species. For marine mammal researchers, these approaches are particularly relevant when comparing traits, distributions, environmental responses and ecological characteristics across cetacean or pinniped species. Closely related species cannot necessarily be treated as statistically independent, and incorporating phylogenetic relationships can provide more appropriate inference when analysing multispecies datasets. What you'll gain * Understand the principles of spatial phylogenetics and phylogenetic comparative methods * Quantify and interpret phylogenetic signal * Combine phylogenetic and geographic information to investigate biodiversity across space * Calculate phylogenetic diversity (PD), mean pairwise distance (MPD) and mean nearest taxon distance (MNTD) * Examine phylogenetic turnover and beta diversity * Map and visualise phylogenetic structure geographically * Build and interpret Bayesian Phylogenetic Mixed Models (PMMs) in R * Incorporate phylogenetic covariance into mixed-modelling frameworks * Understand fixed, random and phylogenetic random effects * Link PMMs with familiar GLMM frameworks * Implement models using brms and Stan * Assess model fitting, diagnostics, convergence and uncertainty * Compare models with and without phylogenetic information * Project posterior model results into geographic space These are the core methods covered by the current course programme. Course format * 3-day live, instructor-led online course * 24 hours of training * Lectures combined with hands-on practical exercises * Practical implementation in R * Spatially explicit ecological and evolutionary examples * Opportunity to discuss participants' own data * Code, datasets and presentation slides provided * All sessions recorded * 30 days of recording access and post-course email support Who is this course for? * Marine mammal ecologists * Cetacean and pinniped researchers * Marine conservation scientists * Evolutionary and comparative biologists * Researchers studying marine mammal traits and life histories * Researchers comparing ecological or environmental responses among species * Researchers investigating species distributions and biogeographic patterns * Researchers working with multispecies datasets * Researchers interested in integrating phylogeny into ecological models * Postgraduate students and professional researchers Why take this course? Comparative marine mammal research often involves analysing data from multiple cetacean or pinniped species. These species share evolutionary histories, meaning similarities in traits, ecological characteristics or environmental responses may partly reflect common ancestry rather than statistically independent observations. Bayesian Phylogenetic Mixed Models provide a framework for explicitly incorporating this phylogenetic non-independence into hierarchical statistical models. The course shows how phylogenetic covariance can be incorporated alongside fixed and random effects, how phylogenetic variance components can be interpreted, and how models with and without phylogenetic information can be compared. The spatial component is also highly applicable to marine biodiversity research. Participants learn methods for examining phylogenetic diversity, phylogenetic turnover and geographic patterns in evolutionary structure, allowing ecological and evolutionary information to be considered together across space. These approaches can therefore be valuable for marine mammal research examining species traits, ecological niches, distributions, community composition, biogeography, biodiversity and responses to environmental change, particularly when analyses span multiple related species. Course dates 14–16 October 2026 09:00–17:00 UK time 3 days | 24 hours | Live online | £350 All sessions are recorded, with 30 days of recording access and post-course support. Learn more & enrol PR Stats – Spatial Phylogenetics and the Bayesian Phylogenetic Mixed Model (BPMM01)<https://prstats.org/course/spatial-phylogenetics-and-the-bayesian-phylogenetic-mixed-model-pmm-bpmm01/?utm_source=chatgpt.com> Questions? Email: [email protected] Sent from Outlook for Mac
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