Sampling state and process variables on coral reefs.

Contemporary coral reefs are forced to survive through and recover from disturbances at a variety of spatial and temporal scales. Understanding disturbances in the context of ecological processes may lead to accurate predictive models of population trajectories. Most coral-reef studies and monitoring programs examine state variables, which include the percentage coverage of major benthic organisms, but few studies examine the key ecological processes that drive the state variables.

Sampling to Detect Rare Species.

Often a sampling program has the objective of detecting the presence of one or more species. One night wish to obtain a species list for the habitat, or to detect the presence of a rare and possibly endangered species. How can the sampling effort necessary for the detection of a rare species can be determined? The Poisson and the negative binomial are two possible spatial distributions that could be assumed.

A Multivariate Statistical Approach to the Hutchinsonian Niche: Bivalve Molluscs of Central Canada.

The use of multiple discriminant analysis to identify the significant and independent ecological factors separating species distributions is proposed and discussed. Such an analysis was performed on 345 samples, containing a total of 10 bivalve mollusc species, from 32 lakes in Manitoba, Ontario, and Saskatchewan. Measurements of nine ecological parameters were associated with each sample.