Community Ecology Book

Our book Community Ecology is intended as a support for your studies and research into ecological community data. In Community Ecology the focus is on data analysis methods required for studies of ecological community data. From the book you will learn how to carry out a range of analytical methods, such as diversity, similarity and multivariate analysis (ordination). These methods are used to aid your data interpretation of ecological community data, and to help you understand better, the complex interactions between species.

This community ecology book is intended to give you insights into some of the quantitative data analysis methods employed by ecologists in the study of communities. The book is not intended to be a mathematical or theoretical treatise but inevitably there is some maths!

There are many published works concerning ecological theory; this community ecology book is intended to support them by providing a framework for learning how to analyse your data. In Community Ecology you’ll find chapter summaries, self-assessment exercises and plenty of examples to help support your studies. Our support webpages include custom R functions and spreadsheets to help your analysis and data interpretation.

In our book Community Ecology, the emphasis is on methods of analysis using R and Excel, in the study of ecological community data. In Community Ecology you will learn about a range of analytical methods using R and Excel, for example:

• Species Richness.
• Ecological diversity.
• Similarity (and dissimilarity).
• Cluster analysis.
• Association analysis.
• Methods of Ordination (e.g. NMDS, PCA, canoco).
• Multivariate analysis.

In Community Ecology the focus is on when, and how, to carry out the appropriate data analysis and data interpretation. The R program is the main tool for the quantitative data analysis, although Excel is used also, where practical. Excel is a familiar tool but the powerful and flexible Open Source R program is featured in the book. If you are not familiar with R, the book will show you the essentials, so you can start exploring ecological community data immediately. You will also learn some essential data science skills, such as how to arrange and manage your data.

This book is for undergraduate and postgraduate students and researchers seeking a step-by-step methodology for analysing plant and animal communities using R and Excel.