Data and Interpretation - Lou Verchotppt - RUFORUM数据和解释，楼verchotppt - ruforum.pptVIP

Data and Interpretation What have you learnt? The delver into nature’s aims Seeks freedom and perfection; Let calculation sift his claims With faith and circumspection -Goethe Numerical approaches can never dispense … researchers from reflection on observations. Data analysis must be seen as an objective and non-exclusive approach to carry out in-depth analysis of the data. Legendre and Legendre Organization of this presentation The scientific method – from the question to the answer and back again Data analysis – beyond statistical inference (some tools) From analysis to conclusions – modeling Causal loop diagrams – a useful tool for beginning to explore modeling Some practical things about drawing conclusions from data and models – fitting your data into what is already known, extrapolation and speculation Updating theory and practice Analysis:Beyond statistical inference Autocorrelation and spatial structure Spatial dependence If there is no auto-correlation in the variable of interest, spatial variability may be the result of explanatory variables exhibiting spatial structure Many tools exist for spatial analysis Some applications Biogeochemical cycles Hydrology Poverty dynamics Vegetation structure Mapping Trend surface analysis - a regression approach Interpolated maps – contour maps generated from a regular grid of measurements Kriging – a geostatistical approach based on semivariance analysis Classification Many research goals involve classifying objects that are sufficiently similar into useful or recognizable categories. Example of hierarchically nested partitions Ordination in reduced space Many multivariate datasets have more dimensions than we can easily comprehend or manipulate in a meaningful way. There are a number of techniques to reduce the dimensionality of these datasets Meaningful relationships are deduced from the relative positions of observation units in this reduced space Factor analysis Frequently used in the social sciences Ai