[ECOLOG-L] Statistical Question on Temperature Profiles

[Christopher Brown]

Ecologgers,

 

I have a master's student who is examining thermal preferences of two
species of scorpions in the Sky Islands of southeastern Arizona. She has
gathered some field temperature data as part of her thesis, but we are
unsure how best to analyze the data (or perhaps more specifically, what
data to analyze). I've given some details below, if you have some
insight for us!

 

The short version of the experiment: these scorpions are found under
rocks during the day, and we have determined thermal profiles for 15
rocks under which scorpions were found and 15 rocks under which
scorpions were not found. For both sets of rocks, we measured length and
width and selected a range of sizes based on binning the rocks into
three categories (small, intermediate, and large) and then choosing 5
rocks in each size range. Each rock had an iButton placed under it, and
temperatures were recorded every 30 minutes for 48 hours.

 

Her basic question is then, do the thermal characteristics of chosen
rocks differ from the thermal characteristics of non-chosen rocks? Our
problem is, what data should we use? Our first though is at a simple
level: we could calculate mean temps for the two rock categories and
compare them with a t-test, and/or we could compare variances or ranges
(max-min) with a t-test to determine if variability differs between
rocks. We've found a couple of different variations of this kind of
analysis in the literature, but we'd like to know if this is the best
(or "best") way to analyze the data, or are there more sophisticated
techniques that involve analysis of the whole profile? If we do use a
fairly simple analysis based on some type of summary variable, what is
the best summary variable to use (mean? Variance? Range? Something
else?) and the best analysis to do?

 

If anyone has any experience in analyzing this type of data and has some
suggestions, we'd be happy to hear from you!

 

Thanks,

CAB

***

Chris Brown

Associate Professor

Dept. of Biology, Box 5063

Tennessee Tech University

Cookeville, TN  38505

email: cabr...@tntech.edu

website: iweb.tntech.edu/cabrown

 

[ECOLOG-L] Web Sites or Job Boards for Geneticists

[Christopher Brown]

To all,

 

This is a bit outside of ecology, but I'm hoping someone can help answer
a question. Our department is in the process of looking for a geneticist
(very broadly defined, so it could be population, molecular,
developmental, etc.), and we plan on advertising in the usual places
such as Science and CHE. We'd also like to post the advertisement on a
site or job board more directly geared towards geneticists, but none of
us on the committee know which site (or sites) would be best for this.
Thus, if anyone has any suggestions for appropriate genetics society web
sites and/or job boards, I'd appreciate hearing from you!

 

CAB

***

Chris Brown

Associate Professor

Dept. of Biology, Box 5063

Tennessee Tech University

Cookeville, TN  38505

email: cabr...@tntech.edu

website: iweb.tntech.edu/cabrown

 

[ECOLOG-L] Spad meter

[Christopher Brown]

Hello,
I am looking for a spad meter to measure chlorophyll content for a small 
undergraduate project.  Please let me know if you have a used one for sale at a 
reasonable price (and by this I mean "cheap") or one not being used that a 
poor, small college might be able to borrow.

Thanks,
Christopher G. Brown, Ph.D
Assistant Professor of Biology
School of Sciences and Mathematics
Shorter University

315 Shorter Avenue
Rome, GA 30165
706 233-7389

"But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you;
 And the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you.
Or speak to the earth, and let it teach you;
 And let the fish of the sea declare to you.
  Who among all these does not know
 That the hand of the Lord has done this?"
 Job 12: 7-10



CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE:
This email, or its attachments, may contain private, confidential or privileged 
information of Shorter University and is for the use of the intended 
recipient(s). Any unauthorized review, disclosure, or distribution is strictly 
prohibited. If you have received this email in error or you are not the 
intended and authorized recipient, please notify the sender and permanently 
delete all copies of the respective email and its attachments without reading 
them. Thank you for your cooperation.

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Hypothesis Testing in Ecology

[Christopher Brown]

William and others,

Personally, I think that the answer to the question "Is all data
gathering research?" is clearly and unequivocally YES...just as I think
this is not really the question you are addressing here. Instead, I
think you are more properly asking "Is all data gathering fundable
research?" (or perhaps "Is all data gathering research that is useful
for professional advancement?"). For these latter questions, I think
your comments are important and useful to keep in mind, for both
students and professionals; however, I think your initial paragraph too
broadly dismisses activities that are crucial to our understanding of
nature. As but one example: I was recently reading a paper by Jerry
Coyne et al (Evolution 2008) examining the origins of sexual dimorphism
in birds. As their data, they used information on hybrids gathered from
the literature. Now, my guess is that many of us (if we wanted) could
use the original hybrid reports as an example of "non-research" data
gathering, since on their own they really have no "useful" purpose other
than just as a bit of information, perhaps only interesting to other
ornithologists. But, with enough of these pieces out there, Coyne et al.
were able to address an interesting theoretical question. As I learned
early on, write down and record everything, as you never know what will
be important later on.

Chris
***
Chris Brown
Associate Professor
Dept. of Biology, Box 5063
Tennessee Tech University
Cookeville, TN  38505
email: cabr...@tntech.edu
website: iweb.tntech.edu/cabrown


-Original Message-
From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news
[mailto:ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU] On Behalf Of Resetarits, William
Sent: Tuesday, March 08, 2011 2:34 PM
To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Hypothesis Testing in Ecology

It seems a rather critical issue has raised its head at this juncture in
the discussion. "Is all data gathering research."  I think we risk being
disingenuous and misleading the many students on this listserve if we
don't clearly and unequivocally answer "NO."  To suggetst hat the
"system" is somehow faulty and that it is OK for folks, especially
students, to follow their hearts and simply gather data on their
favorite organisms or systems is doing them a grave disservice.  One of
the first, and undoubtedly the most important, thing I learned in my
PhD. was also the most simple.  The key question in any research
project, whether empirical, experimental or theoretical, is... What's
the question?  Or as one of my committee members so eloquently put it,
"why should I care."  The fact that no one knows anything about a
particular taxon or a system, or "I really like organism X" is rarely an
adequate answer.

No one really doubts the absolute value of pure descriptive natural
history, and data is a good thing, but it cannot realistically be an end
in itself for a professional scientist in this day and age.   Even the
most storied present day natural historians, and those of the past as
well, bring much more to the table.   In any realistic funding climate,
question driven science will, and should, take precedence.  This does
not mean that one can't do pure natural history in the context of
question driven science, but it alone is unlikely to be sufficient to
drive the research to the top of anyone's funding list, onto the pages
of top journals, or to drive a candidate to the top of many job lists,
at least at the PhD. level.

Similarly, biodiversity discovery is important, ongoing, and it gets
funded.  Why?  NSF's Program in Biotic Surveys and Inventories, recently
expired programs in Microbial Observatories, and Microbial Inventories
and Processes, and to some extent the ongoing Dimensions of Biodiversity
program, among others, target biodiversity discovery.  But all of them
require well-framed questions that convince the target audience that
THIS biodiversity discovery project should be funded over the 90% of
those submitted that cannot be funded.   The key is what else it brings
to the table beyond just documenting what is out there.  Most applied
funding that allows for simple inventories and surveys is driven by
economic and political considerations, not scientific.  As valuable as
it was for documenting the flora, fauna, ethnography, and geology of the
American West, the Corps of Discovery expedition was NOT a scientific
expedition but funded solely for economic and political purposes.  Onl!
 y Jefferson's personal missive to gather data on plants, animals,
Indian tribes etc., made it something beyond an exploration and mapping
expedition.  The actual science was done by others long after the Corps
had returned.  Similarly, naturalists (such as Darwin) were employed on
commercial and exploratory voyages largely to bring back interesting,
and more importantly, economically valuable plants and animals.  Such
was the case with the Beagle.

We all admire Darwin as a natural historian, but 

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Best Book/Article Title Ever?

[Christopher Brown]

Maybe it's because it's Friday and the end of a long week, but am I the only 
one who thinks that "The Pearly Mussels of PA" is perhaps one of the best 
book/article title ever? Slightly yet unintentionally erotic as well, and the 
fact that it was written by Spoo just adds to the awesomeness!

CAB
***
Chris Brown
Associate Professor
Dept. of Biology, Box 5063
Tennessee Tech University
Cookeville, TN  38505
email: cabr...@tntech.edu
website: iweb.tntech.edu/cabrown


-Original Message-
From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news 
[mailto:ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU] On Behalf Of T. Travis Brown
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2011 7:47 AM
To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] ECOLOG-L Digest - 26 Jan 2011 to 27 Jan 2011 (#2011-27)

I would recommend "The Pearly Mussels of PA" by Spoo and "The Freshwater 
Gastropods of New York" by Jokinen.  That should take care of the mussels and 
Atlantic slope snails, but I don' t know if there's a good resource for 
gastropods in the western part of the state.  The most comprehensive is Burch's 
work.

Burch's 1982 EPA report on snails is available in pdf form on the web at:  

http://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyNET.exe/10004R98.TXT?ZyActionD=ZyDocument&Client=EPA&Index=1981+Thru+1985&Docs=&Query=600382026+Freshwater%20snails%20of%20the%20United%20States%20EPA&Time=&EndTime=&SearchMethod=3&TocRestrict=n&Toc=&TocEntry=&QField=pubnumber^%22600382026%22&QFieldYear=&QFieldMonth=&QFieldDay=&UseQField=pubnumber&IntQFieldOp=1&ExtQFieldOp=1&XmlQuery=&File=D%3A\zyfiles\Index%20Data\81thru85\Txt\\10004R98.txt&User=ANONYMOUS&Password=anonymous&SortMethod=h|-&MaximumDocuments=10&FuzzyDegree=0&ImageQuality=r75g8/r75g8/x150y150g16/i425&Display=p|f&DefSeekPage=x&SearchBack=ZyActionL&Back=ZyActionS&BackDesc=Results%20page&MaximumPages=1&ZyEntry=1&SeekPage=x

Rob Dillon in SC is in the process of making this easier for all of us 
(Freshwater Gastropods of NA website), but he's mainly done the southeastern 
states so far.

Hope this helps,
Travis

T. Travis Brown
ttravis.brow...@gmail.com

> Greetings all -
>
> Anyone got recommendations as to a comprehensive, accurate key - or keys -
> for freshwater bivalves and gastropods that would cover taxa occurring in
> Pennsylvania?
>
> Much obliged -
> Brian
>
> Brian A. Chalfant | -ologist
> Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection
> Rachel Carson State Office Building
> 400 Market Street | Harrisburg, PA 17101
> Phone: 717.787.9639 | Fax: 717.772.3249
> www.depweb.state.pa.us
>

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Grad students: what are they worth, and does their work space effect their productivity? Input gratefully accepted

[Christopher Brown]

Alisha,

One thing that has not been mentioned re: a graduate student's worth to
a university relates to their FTE (full-time equivalent) hours. At our
university, each credit hour for a grad student is weighted more heavily
than an undergraduate credit hour. Working from memory (I'm lazy
today!), I believe each master's FTE is 4 times that of an undergrad,
and each doctoral FTE is 12 times the undergraduate level. If funding
formulations are based on FTEs, as is true at many state institutions,
then grad student hours are worth a lot to the university.

I'd also strongly support bringing up the topic of quietness for
writing, since this is a major component of the graduate experience.
It's often difficult enough to work and write in an office with just 2
people, as I know from experience. I eventually had to finish my
dissertation from home, because my office mate and I were both trying to
write at the same time; if either one was not interested in writing on a
given day, it was too easy to distract the other, and we'd never get
anything done! I can't even begin to imagine the difficulty of trying to
write a thesis or dissertation with 30 other folks in the office (plus
students coming in, grad advisors, post-docs, significant others, etc
etc...)

Chris

Chris Brown
Associate Professor
Dept. of Biology, Box 5063
Tennessee Tech University
Cookeville, TN 38505
email: cabr...@tntech.edu
website: iweb.tntech.edu/cabrown

-Original Message-
From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news
[mailto:ecolo...@listserv.umd.edu] On Behalf Of James Crants
Sent: Thursday, April 22, 2010 11:51 AM
To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Grad students: what are they worth, and does
their work space effect their productivity? Input gratefully accepted

I went to Michigan, and I would say the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
department there was pretty good to its grad students.  If anything,
they've been getting better since I started there nine years ago.  I'm
certainly glad they didn't treat us the way your department is planning
to treat you.

One of the hidden values of grad students to a university is the way
they make it feasible to carry out major research projects.  A
university gets a percentage of each grant its faculty members manage to
land (there may be exceptions), and a professor can get a bigger grant,
and is more likely to get a grant in the first place, if there are grad
students to help with the work.  Also, since these big projects increase
the prestige of the institution and add permanent resources, such as
high-value lab equipment, they generate more income than is obvious on
paper.  It's easier for professors at high-prestige universities to land
more grant money, and high-achieving undergrads with the potential to
become rich, big-donating alumni are drawn to high-prestige
universities.

I don't know how strong this argument is for ecology, which doesn't
bring in as much grant money or generate as many millionaire alumns as
some other disciplines, but I think even ecology grad students must be a
net positive for the wealth and prestige of their institutions.

Abstract arguments aside, what you describe sounds like the worst work
environment I've heard of any department providing its grad students
(fieldwork doesn't count).  If my department had gone through with a
plan like that, I'd have considered taking my Master's and going
elsewhere for my doctorate.

Good luck.

Jim

On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 10:19 AM, Kevin Murray 
wrote:

> Hello all,
>
> This is a very important topic. I dealt with similar negative 
> attitudes towards grad students during my dissertation work. I know as

> scientists we like to point to empirical evidence to support a point, 
> but I can't help you there. I don't know of any papers on the matter. 
> However, if you want to quickly estimate your value to the university,

> just envision a simple scenario. Imagine if every graduate student 
> immediately stopped doing any work whatsoever to support the 
> university. Imagine the university's response. Their anger (and fear) 
> will be directly proportional to your value. If you and your graduate 
> students demand respect as a group then your value will be recognized 
> by the university, one way or another. Good luck,
>
> Kevin
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, Apr 22, 2010 at 8:39 AM, Julie Byrd Hebert 
wrote:
>
> > Alisha
> >
> > I'm glad to see you bringing this topic up. I've been wondering what

> > the climate for graduate students is like at different institutions.

> > I think
> it
> > is important to know because, in my experience, your description of 
> > the value of graduate students (at least to the University 
> > Administrators) is much like my own. I have to wonder if this is 
> > part of the reason for the "decline of science and innovation" at 
> > least in the United States. Why remain in a field where you don't 
> > feel valued? If the graduate st

[ECOLOG-L] Responses to Marking Salamanders Question

[Christopher Brown]

To all,
 
I'd like to thank everyone who sent in suggestions for marking green
salamanders so as to identify individuals during filmed encounters. I've
summarized the suggestions below and indicated our plans, for those
interested.
 
Four people suggested using dorsal patterns, either through photo
libraries or image analysis software. Two suggested using injectable
elastomers and two others suggested fluorescent powder; at least one
person for each of these indicated that they may be visible under red
lights (which we will use) and without using UV lighting. Two people
suggested the use of small rubber bands or hair bands, which apparently
can be placed around the body either behind the head, between the legs,
or near the legs. And finally, one person suggested supergluing ribbons
(or other small objects) onto the backs, which seems to have no adverse
effects.
 
Because of our needs (simplicity, the ability to follow the animal
easily as it moves, and the ability to sham mark if needed) we're trying
the superglue idea first. My student has created some paint dots and
glued them near the base of the tail. The retention rate is about 60-70%
thus far over 24 hours; however, the glue itself stays put even if the
dot does not, so we think we can follow the marked individual this way.
If this doesn't work well, we're going to try the rubber/hair bands,
using different colors or widths.
 
CAB

Chris Brown
Associate Professor
Dept. of Biology, Box 5063
Tennessee Tech University
Cookeville, TN 38505
email: cabr...@tntech.edu
website: iweb.tntech.edu/cabrown
 

Re: [ECOLOG-L] Are reviews anonymous?

[Christopher Brown]

 
Jonathan,

As it so happens, a message close to yours in my email folder was from a
review I did for American Naturalist. As part of the message from the
editor is the line "Please keep all reviews, including your own,
confidential." Thus, at least for Am Nat, it appears that the reviews
should remain unpublished in any form.

CAB

Chris Brown
Associate Professor
Dept. of Biology, Box 5063
Tennessee Tech University
Cookeville, TN 38505
email: cabr...@tntech.edu
website: iweb.tntech.edu/cabrown

-Original Message-
From: Ecological Society of America: grants, jobs, news
[mailto:ecolo...@listserv.umd.edu] On Behalf Of Jonathan Greenberg
Sent: Monday, March 01, 2010 12:48 PM
To: ECOLOG-L@LISTSERV.UMD.EDU
Subject: [ECOLOG-L] Are reviews anonymous?

Quick question that came up recently that I was curious about -- I know
REVIEWERS are anonymous, but are the reviews you get supposed to be
anonymous, or can they be posted in a public forum?

--j

[ECOLOG-L] Temporarily Marking Salamanders

[Christopher Brown]

To all,
 
My graduate student and I are attempting to temporarily mark individuals
for an intraspecific competition experiment in the green salamander
Aneides aeneus. These are being filmed under red light to simulate
nocturnal conditions. Nearly all the marking techniques I know of or
that we have run across are designed primarily for mark-recapture work,
and are either not visible or introduce potentially confounding elements
to the experiment. Toe clipping and threads are not easily visible, and
tail clipping has the potential to impact competition. Fluorescent dyes
or elastomers are possible, but we'd need to use a UV light source and
we're unsure how this would affect behavior; in addition, they're
somewhat difficult to discern on tape with the red/UV combo. Does anyone
have any suggestions for marking techniques, preferably short-term (<24
h), that would work for these animals?
My thanks in advance for any suggestions, and you can contact me
off-list if you'd prefer.
 
Chris

Chris Brown
Associate Professor
Dept. of Biology, Box 5063
Tennessee Tech University
Cookeville, TN 38505
email: cabr...@tntech.edu
website: iweb.tntech.edu/cabrown