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Mon Nov 5 15:20:17 EST 2001

Multivariate Statistical Analysis Workshop

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Wildlife
Foundation of Florida and Primer-E announce a workshop, 5-8 February, 2002
at the Florida Marine Research Institute laboratories, 100 8th Ave SE St.
Petersburg, Florida.  The workshop instructor will be Dr. K. Robert
Clarke, one of the creators of the Primer package of multivariate
software.  Dr. Clarke has published numerous papers that have pioneered
the use of multivariate statistics to look at changes in marine
communities.

Workshop costs and Logistics

The workshop costs (US$) are:

Tuition:  $500 Full-time, registered University Student:  $350

In addition, all participants are expected to purchase a single user
license of Primer version 5, if they do not already own one.  The
following discounted license prices are offered to workshop participants:

Single-user license $630 (normal cost is $840).  Academic (Faculty,
Researcher, Student, Staff) single-user license $315 (normal cost is
$420).

If you are currently a registered owner of Primer Version 4 for DOS, you
can upgrade to Primer v5 for the following prices:

Single-user upgrade license: $315 (normal cost is $420). Academic
single-user upgrade license: $157 (normal cost is $210).

It is recommended that each attendee bring a portable PC to the workshop,
on which PRIMER is installed (or to be installed) and used for the
practical sessions.  For those PCs on which PRIMER is to be installed,
they should possess a CD-ROM drive, run Windows 95 or later (98, NT, ME,
2000, etc.) and also have installed a copy of Excel 97 (or later).

Travel and Lodging St. Petersburg is served by Tampa International and St.
Petersburg-Clearwater International Airports.  Regular service by most
major carriers is available. The FMRI laboratories are located on the
University of South Florida Bayboro Campus at the end of First Street
South, approximately 10 minutes from exit 9 (I-175) on US Interstate 275.  
More information on lodging and directions are available on the FMRI
website at:  http://www.floridamarine.org/docs/map_directions2.pdf

Hotels in 10-15 minute walking distance of the FMRI laboratories include:

Bayboro Inn: 727-823-0498				Hilton: 727-894-5000
Beach Park: 727-898-6325				Ponce deLeon: 727-550-9300
Heritage-Holiday Inn: 727-321-2958

To Register please complete the attached course registration form and
return with payment.  Note that all course participants must have a
licensed copy of PRIMER version 5.  Participants who need to purchase
PRIMER or upgrade their current version of PRIMER can do so by completing
the attached PRIMER purchase form and returning it with payment directly
to PRIMER-E.

Questions regarding the course may be directed to:

Walter Jaap, Florida Marine Research Institute
100 8th Ave. SE
Saint Petersburg, FL  33701
727-896-8626
email:  walt.jaap at fwc.state.fl.us

Questions regarding purchase or upgrade of PRIMER software may be directed to:

Cathy Clarke, 
PRIMER-E Ltd
6 Hedingham Gardens
Roborough
Plymouth
PL6 7DX
United Kingdom 
Tel/Fax: +44 1752 783366 
E-mail: admin at primer-e.com 

Workshop Content

The workshop will take place over four days.  It will cover the
statistical analysis of assemblage data (species by sample matrices of
abundance/biomass/area cover etc) which arise in a diverse range of
applications in environmental science and ecology. Data sets include local
environmental impact assessments, basic biological studies (e.g. of
dietary composition), and wide scale monitoring of biodiversity change.  
The methods covered are generic and applicable in terrestrial, freshwater,
palaeontological etc contexts.  Examples used in the workshop will all be
from marine and estuarine studies.  Many of these are of soft sediment,
coral reef or fish assemblages monitored for environmental impacts
resulting from marine oil operations, organic enrichment, physical
disturbance, climate change etc, but also covered are more fundamental
studies, linking faunal patterns to physico-chemical variables, and
analysing field and mesocosm experiments.

Dr K R Clarke, an honorary fellow of the Plymouth Marine Laboratory, will
lead the workshop; he is a researcher in ecological statistics and has
worked for many years at the PML, where he was responsible for adapting
and developing the methods underlying the PRIMER package.

The programme will be a mixture of lectures on the methodology and
computer practical sessions, analysing real case studies, combined with
the opportunity for participants to bring some of their own data to the
workshop, for initial analysis.  The emphasis throughout is on practical
application and interpretation, the theoretical aspects (e.g. the
multivariate statistical methods) being designed to be robust and easy to
understand, so that prior statistical knowledge is not a prerequisite.  
The exercises throughout the workshop will develop skills in operating
PRIMER and interpreting its results.

The exposition will cover the features available in the PRIMER v5 (for
Windows) package (Plymouth Routines In Multivariate Ecological Research).  
The workshop will consider univariate, graphical and multivariate
routines: hierarchical clustering into sample (or species) groups
(CLUSTER); ordination by non-metric multidimensional scaling (MDS) and
principal components (PCA) to summarise patterns in species composition
and environmental variables. Participants will learn permutation-based
hypothesis testing (ANOSIM), an analogue of univariate ANOVA which tests
for differences between groups of (multivariate) samples from different
times, locations, experimental treatments etc, and identifying the species
primarily providing the discrimination between two observed sample
clusters (SIMPER). Additionally, lectures will cover linking of
multivariate biotic patterns to suites of environmental variables
(BIO-ENV); comparative (Mantel-type) tests on similarity matrices
(RELATE); standard diversity indices; dominance plots; aggregation of
arrays to allow data analysis at higher taxonomic levels; and matching of
sample patterns from different faunal arrays.  The latter is accomplished
by BVSTEP, a stepwise algorithm generalising BIO-ENV, which can be used,
for example, to find 'influential species', and 2STAGE, a second-stage MDS
in which relationships between a large set of ordinations can be
visualised.  A further unique feature of PRIMER v5 is the ability to
calculate biodiversity indices based on the taxonomic distinctness or
relatedness of the species making up a quantitative sample or species
list, indices whose statistical properties are robust to variations in
sampling effort.  These routines (TAXDTEST) allow formal hypothesis tests
for change in biodiversity structure at a location, by comparison with a
regional 'species pool', and permit valid comparisons of biodiversity
patterns over wide space and time scales, when sampling effort is not
controlled.

Statistical Analysis and Interpretation of Assemblage Data from
Environmental Studies, using PRIMER for Windows (v5)

Workshop Programme

Tuesday, February 5, 2002

09:00-09:15	Introduction

09:15-10:30 Lecture: Measures of similarity of species abundance/biomass
between samples, including the effects of data transformation

10:30-10:45	Coffee break

10:45-11:30 Lecture: Hierarchical clustering (CLUSTER)

11:30-13:00 Practical session on installing PRIMER, CLUSTER and reading in
'own data'*

13:00-14:15 Lunch break

14:15-15:15 Lecture: Ordination by Principal Components Analysis (PCA)

15:15-15:30 Coffee break

15:30-16:30 Lecture: Ordination by Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS)

16:30-17:45 Practical session on MDS and 'own data'

Wednesday, February 6, 2002

09:00-10:30 Lecture: Testing for differences between groups of samples
(ANOSIM, 1- and 2-way)

10:30-10:45 Coffee break

10:45-11:30 Practical session on 1- and 2-way ANOSIM

11:30-12:00 Lecture: Determining species which discriminate two groups of
samples (SIMPER)

12:00-13:00 Practical session on SIMPER and 'own data'

13:00-14:15 Lunch break

14:15-14:45 Lecture: Diversity measures (DIVERSE) and dominance curves

14:45-15:15 Practical session on DIVERSE and dominance curves

15:15-15:30 Coffee break

15:30-16:30 Lecture: Taxonomic distinctness as a biodiversity measure
(TAXDTEST)

16:30-17:45 Practical session on TAXDTEST and 'own data'

Thursday, February 7, 2002

09:00-10:30 Lecture: Linking community analyses to environmental variables
(BIO-ENV)

10:30-10:45 Coffee break

10:45-11:45 Practical session on PCA, draftsman plots, BIO-ENV and 'own
data'

11:45-12:30 Lecture: Multivariate measures of impact: meta-analyses,
seriation (RELATE) and dispersion (MVDISP)

12:30-13:00 Practical session on RELATE

13:00-17:00 Lunch, and a canoe-kayak adventure in Weedon Island Mangrove
forest

Friday, February 8, 2002

09:00-10:30 Lecture: Comparison of ordinations I: Testing in a 2-way
layout with no replication (ANOSIM2) and species subsets determining
overall pattern (BVSTEP)

10:30-10:45 Coffee break

10:45-11:30 Practical session on ANOSIM2 and BVSTEP or 'own data'

11:30-12:00 Lecture: Comparisons of ordinations II: 2nd stage MDS (2STAGE)

12:00-12:45 Practical session on 2STAGE or 'own data'

12:45-13:00 Wind-up session: any remaining questions

13:00- Lunch and depart

*Participants should bring any 'own data' they wish to try out in these
sessions in the form of simple rectangular arrays with (say) species as
rows and samples as columns, the entries being numeric (counts or % area
cover or biomass etc), stored as an Excel spreadsheet.  Further case
studies can be provided for these sessions for participants who do not
have a convenient example data set from their own studies to hand.

Registration:  Multivariate Statistical Analysis Workshop Registration
Florida Marine Research Institute, St. Petersburg, Florida February 5-8,
2002

Name:________________________________________________

Affiliation:_____________________________________________

Address:_______________________________________________

	________________________________________________

PHONE:_________________________FAX:__________________________

e-mail:_______________________________

Fee:___________________________________

Full Registration: $500.00

Full-time, registered University Student:  $350  [include documentation]

Note you must possess PRIMER v5 to participate.  To purchase or upgrade PRIMER at a discounted rate, please use attached PRIMER purchase/upgrade form. 

Method of payment in US dollars

Make Checks to:   Wildlife Foundation of Florida

Credit Card (Visa Only)

Card Number:__________________________

Expiration Date:____________________

Authorized Signature:_____________________________

Remit Payment to:

Jeanne Hoyt
FWC Florida Marine Research Institute
100 8th Avenue SE
St. Petersburg, FL 33701
Phone: (727) 896-8626
Email: jeanne.hoyt at fwc.state.fl.us

PRIMER Purchase/Upgrade Form

Name:________________________________________________

Affiliation:_____________________________________________

Address:_______________________________________________

	________________________________________________

PHONE:_________________________FAX:__________________________

e-mail:_______________________________

Fee:___________________________________

The following discounted license prices are offered to workshop participants:

Single-user license $630 (normal cost is $840).  
Academic (Faculty, Researcher, Student, Staff) single-user license $315 (normal cost is $420).

If you are currently a registered owner of Primer Version 4 for DOS, you can upgrade to Primer v5 for the following prices: 

Single-user upgrade license: $315 (normal cost is $420).
Academic single-user upgrade license: $157 (normal cost is $210).

Method of payment in US dollars

Make Checks to:   PRIMER-E

Credit Card (Visa or  Master Card only)

Card Number:__________________________

Expiration Date:____________________

Authorized Signature:_____________________________

Remit Payment to:

PRIMER-E Ltd
6 Hedingham Gardens
Roborough
Plymouth
PL6 7DX
United Kingdom 
Tel/Fax: +44 1752 783366 
E-mail: admin at primer-e.com 
http://www.primer-e.com/

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