CENTRE FOR ECOLOGY AND HYDROLOGY - MONKS WOOD
VACATION EMPLOYMENT OF MATHEMATICS AND STATISTICS STUDENT
The above scheme provides funds to employ university students at Natural Environment Research Council centres. It aims to introduce students with a background in mathematics (including statistics) to quantitative problems in the environmental sciences.
Funds are available for 10 weeks at approximately £130 per week.
A post is available at the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Monks Wood for the summer of 2000. The student will assist in the analysis of population indices and trends of butterfly species using data from the British Butterfly Monitoring Scheme.
PROJECT OUTLINE
Butterfly Monitoring Scheme
The Butterfly Monitoring Scheme (BMS), run by CEH Monks Wood was set up in 1976 and currently covers over 120 sites across the UK (Pollard & Yates, 1993). At each site, counts of butterfly species on a 1-2km transect are recorded once a week from April to September each year. From these counts, regional and national indices of abundance are derived. The BMS database (running under ORACLE) represents one of the best long-term biological datasets in Britain, and is widely used in research.
Background to project
The primary aim of the Butterfly Monitoring Scheme is to monitor year-to-year trends in the abundance of butterflies in the UK. Annual site total counts are collated to produce species national collated indices from which trends can be examined. Currently, the national collated indices are based on a simple 'chaining' method (Moss & Pollard, 1993). A range of more sophisticated indexing methods have been suggested recently (ter Braak et al., 1994) including the TRIM package (Pannekoek & van Strien, 1996). Further, the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) are increasingly using Generalized Additive Models (GAMs) as a flexible, non-parametric framework for calculating population indices and trends of birds. This project will investigate the use of GAMs to detect trends in the abundance of butterflies in the UK.
Experience gained
The student will gain experience in the following areas:
Increasingly used statistical techniques of Generalized Additive Models;
Statistical packages such as Genstat and Minitab;
Manipulation of BMS data in ORACLE;
Knowledge of butterfly population ecology;
Practical experience in field sampling
References
Moss, D. & Pollard, E. (1993). Calculation of collated indices of abundance of butterflies based on monitored sites. Ecological Entomology, 18, 77-83.
Pannekoek, J. & van Strien, A. (1996). TRIM (TRends & Indices for Monitoring data). Statistics Netherlands, Voorburg, The Netherlands.
Pollard, E. & Yates, T.J. (1993). Monitoring butterflies for ecology and conservation. Chapman and Hall, London.
ter Braak, C.J.F., van Strien, A.J., Meijer, R. & Verstrael, T.J. (1994). Analysis of monitoring data with many missing values: which method? Bird Numbers 1992: Distribution, monitoring and ecological aspects. (eds Hagemeijer W, Verstrael T), pp. 663-673. SOVON, Beek-Ubbergen, Netherlands.
To express and interest in this opportunity please send a CV to David Roy at: [log in to unmask]
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