Hi everyone, Multivariate Analysis of Ecological Communities Using VEGAN (VGNR10) – Applications for Marine Mammal Research
2–6 November 2026 | 35 hours | £485 | Live Online https://prstats.org/course/multivariate-analysis-of-ecological-communities-using-vegan-vgnr10/ Learn how to analyse complex ecological community datasets using R and the VEGAN package, with practical training in multivariate statistical methods, ordination, clustering, community diversity and the relationships between species assemblages and environmental conditions. For marine mammal researchers, multivariate approaches provide valuable tools for investigating prey community composition, habitat-associated biodiversity, ecosystem structure, environmental gradients and ecological changes affecting marine mammal populations. These methods are particularly useful for analysing multi-species datasets from marine ecosystems, including fish and invertebrate communities, plankton assemblages, prey availability, habitat surveys and other biological data collected alongside marine mammal observations. This comprehensive five-day course combines statistical theory with hands-on analysis of empirical ecological datasets. Participants are strongly encouraged to bring their own datasets and will receive guidance on selecting appropriate analytical approaches, interpreting results and presenting their findings. What you'll gain * Understand the principles of multivariate analysis of ecological communities * Prepare, structure and transform ecological community datasets in R * Calculate and interpret diversity indices and community metrics * Understand ecological distance and dissimilarity measures * Select appropriate transformations and distance measures for community data * Apply clustering and classification techniques to investigate differences among biological assemblages * Understand and perform unconstrained ordination analyses * Apply Principal Component Analysis (PCA) * Use Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMDS) to visualise ecological community patterns * Understand and apply constrained ordination methods * Perform Redundancy Analysis (RDA) * Apply Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) * Investigate relationships between community composition and environmental predictors * Test ecological hypotheses using canonical ordination methods * Analyse changes in species assemblages across environmental and anthropogenic gradients * Work with continuous and categorical explanatory variables * Interpret and visualise multivariate results * Develop reproducible analytical workflows using R and VEGAN * Apply multivariate methods to your own marine ecological and conservation research questions Course format * Dates: 2–6 November 2026 * Duration: 5 days, 7 hours per day – 35 hours total * Format: Live online * Combination of theoretical lectures and hands-on practical exercises * Practical analysis using R and the VEGAN package * Empirical datasets covering terrestrial ecology, wetland ecology, microbial ecology, evolution and palaeoecology * Participants are encouraged to bring their own datasets, including marine ecological data * Individual guidance on choosing appropriate methods and interpreting results * All sessions recorded, with recordings normally available the same day * 30 days' access to recordings * Course fee: £485 Who is this course for? This course will be particularly relevant to marine mammal researchers and scientists working in: * Marine mammal ecology and conservation * Marine community ecology * Prey ecology and prey availability * Marine biodiversity research * Cetacean and pinniped habitat studies * Marine ecosystem monitoring * Fisheries ecology * Marine food webs * Marine spatial ecology * Environmental impact assessment * Marine conservation and management * Coastal and estuarine ecology * Ecological responses to climate change * Quantitative marine ecology It is particularly valuable for researchers working with multi-species ecological datasets, especially those investigating prey assemblages, habitat-associated communities, biodiversity patterns and the environmental conditions influencing marine ecosystems. The course is designed for participants with an intermediate understanding of R, including familiarity with basic data manipulation and statistical analysis. Why take this course? Marine mammals occupy diverse ecological roles within marine ecosystems, and understanding their ecology often requires investigating the wider biological communities and environmental conditions on which they depend. Changes in prey availability, fish and invertebrate assemblages, plankton communities and habitat-associated biodiversity can influence the ecological conditions experienced by marine mammal populations. Analysing these patterns requires methods capable of examining multiple species and environmental variables simultaneously. Multivariate community analysis provides powerful approaches for identifying ecological patterns, comparing species assemblages and investigating relationships between community composition and environmental drivers. For marine mammal researchers, these methods can be particularly valuable when investigating differences in prey communities between feeding grounds, assessing changes in marine biodiversity, comparing habitats or examining ecological responses to environmental and anthropogenic pressures. The VEGAN package in R provides a comprehensive collection of methods for analysing community-level data, including ecological dissimilarity measures, diversity analysis, clustering, ordination and statistical hypothesis testing. VGNR10 provides practical training in these approaches, including PCA, NMDS, RDA and CCA, with an emphasis on understanding when each method is appropriate, how to interpret results and how to avoid common analytical pitfalls. A particular strength of the course is its emphasis on applying these methods to participants' own research. Attendees are encouraged to bring their datasets and can receive guidance on preparing data, selecting appropriate transformations and analyses, and interpreting and presenting their findings. Although the course is not specifically focused on marine mammals, the statistical methods taught are directly applicable to the marine community and ecosystem datasets frequently used to investigate marine mammal ecology, habitat quality, prey availability and conservation. By the end of the course, participants will have developed the skills needed to move from complex marine ecological datasets to robust multivariate analysis, meaningful ecological interpretation and reproducible scientific reporting. Please feel free to share this course with colleagues, friends, research groups, labs, and others within your institute, organisation, or wider research network. Learn more & enrol Multivariate Analysis of Ecological Communities Using VEGAN (VGNR10) https://prstats.org/course/multivariate-analysis-of-ecological-communities-using-vegan-vgnr10/ Questions? Email: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> Best wishes, Oliver Hooker PR Stats Sent from Outlook for Mac
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