Spatio-Temporal Models for Ecologists

<p>Ecological dynamics are tremendously complicated and are studied at a variety of spatial and temporal scales. Ecologists often simplify analysis by describing changes in density of individuals across a landscape and statistical methods are advancing rapidly for studying spatio-temporal dynamics. However spatio-temporal statistics is often presented using a set of principles that may seem very distant from ecological theory or practice. This book seeks to introduce a minimal set of principles and numerical techniques for spatio-temporal statistics that can be used to implement a wide range of real-world ecological analyses regarding animal movement population dynamics community composition causal attribution and spatial dynamics. We provide a step-by-step illustration of techniques that combine core spatial-analysis packages in R with low-level computation using Template Model Builder. Techniques are showcased using real-world data from varied ecological systems providing a toolset for hierarchical modelling of spatio-temporal processes. <i>Spatio-Temporal Models for Ecologists</i> is meant for graduate level students alongside applied and academic ecologists.</p><p>Key Features:</p><ul> <li>Foundational ecological principles and analyses</li> <li>Thoughtful and thorough ecological examples</li> <li>Analyses conducted using a minimal toolbox and fast computation</li> <li>Code using R and TMB included in the book and available online</li> </ul>