2017 ESA Annual Meeting (August 6 -- 11)

SYMP 7-1 - So many variables: Recent advances in joint models for community ecology

Tuesday, August 8, 2017: 1:30 PM
Portland Blrm 251, Oregon Convention Center
David Warton, School of Mathematics and Statistics, UNSW, Sydney, Australia, Francis K.C. Hui, Australian National University, F. Guillaume Blanchet, Mathematics and Statistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada, Robert B. O'Hara, Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Frankfurt (Main), Germany, Otso Ovaskainen, Organismal and Evolutionary Biology Research Programme, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland, Sara Taskinen, University of Jyvaskyla and Steven C. Walker, Department of Mathematics & Statistics, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada
Background/Question/Methods

Technological advances have enabled a new class of multivariate models for ecology, with the potential now to specify a statistical model for abundances jointly across many taxa, to simultaneously explore interactions across taxa and also the response of abundance to environmental variables

Results/Conclusions

Joint models can be used for a number of purposes of interest to ecologists, including: estimating patterns of residual correlation across taxa; ordination; multivariate inference about environmental effects and environment-by-trait interactions; accounting for missing predictors; improving predictions in situations where one can leverage knowledge of some species in order to predict others. We demonstrate this by example and discuss recent computation tools and future directions.