E-Book Overview
Most books and courses in ecology cover facts and concepts but don't explain how to actually do ecological research. How to Do Ecology provides nuts-and-bolts advice on organizing and conducting a successful research program. This one-of-a-kind book explains how to choose a research question and answer it through manipulative experiments and systematic observations. Because science is a social endeavor, the book provides strategies for working with other people, including professors and collaborators. It suggests effective ways to communicate your findings in the form of journal articles, oral presentations, posters, and grant and research proposals. The book also includes ideas to help you identify your goals, organize a season of fieldwork, and deal with negative results. In short, it makes explicit many of the unspoken assumptions behind doing good research in ecology and provides an invaluable resource for meaningful conversations between ecologists.
This second edition of How to Do Ecology features new sections on conducting and analyzing observational surveys, job hunting, and becoming a more creative researcher, as well as updated sections on statistical analyses.
E-Book Content
How to Do
Ecology
How to Do
Ecology
A Concise Handbook Second Edition
Richard Karban Mikaela Huntzinger Ian S. Pearse
Princeton University Press Princeton and Oxford
Copyright © 2014 by Princeton University Press Published by Princeton University Press, 41 William Street, Princeton, New Jersey 08540 In the United Kingdom: Princeton University Press, 6 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX20 1TW press.princeton.edu Cover art by Richard Karban, from a photo by Kaori Shiojiri; Sagehen Creek, California All Rights Reserved ISBN 978–0-691–16176–1 Library of Congress Control Number: 2014934363 British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available This book has been composed in ITC New Baskerville Printed on acid-free paper ∞ Printed in the United States of America 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Contents
vii
List of Illustrations
ix
List of Boxes
xi
Preface to the Second Edition
xiii
Introduction: The Aims of This Book
1
Chapter 1. Picking a Question
19
Chapter 2. Posing Questions (or Picking an Approach)
37
Chapter 3. Using Experiments to Test Hypotheses
58
Chapter 4. Analyzing Experimental Data
77
Chapter 5. Using Surveys to Explore Patterns
vi
C o n te n ts
97
Chapter 6. Building Your Indoor Skills
105
Chapter 7. Working with People and Getting a Job in Ecology
119
Chapter 8. Communicating What You Find
164
Chapter 9. Conclusions
167
Acknowledgments
169
References
177
Index
Illustrations
28
Figure 1. Apparent competition between white-tailed deer and caribou
48
Figure 2. A scope diagram showing an observational, experimental, and modeling approaches used to characterize changes that occur to harbors over decades
51
Figure 3. Experimental designs to evaluate the effects of predators on greenhouse pests
65
Figure 4. The relationship between the number of stork pairs and the human birth rate in 17 European countries
74
Figure 5. Effects of early herbivory on the success of caterpillars and the growth of wild cotton plants
86
Figure 6. Possible relationships between March temperature and bird breeding
viii
C o n te n ts
94
Figure 7. A path analysis showing various hypotheses