Statistics

GLEC researchers are expert at addressing complex environmental problems through applied statistics, biostatistics, and geostatistics.

Examples of applied statistics include:

• Identifying relevant patterns, such as the decline in maximum abundance of a species associated with increasing concentrations of a pollutant
• Testing hypotheses, such as contamination effects on species reproduction compared to reference sites
• Developing predictive models, such as the formula for projecting bioaccumulation of a metal in animal tissues

Rigorous statistical methods are used in toxicity assays, environmental surveys, and modeling exercises. Statistical expertise includes:

• Design and analysis of laboratory toxicity assays, including probit, logistic, and nonlinear regression, survival analysis, ANOVA, and mixed-effects models
• Design and analysis of environmental surveys - sampling design and estimation methods
• Estimates of adequate sample sizes - power analyses
• GIS based geostatistical analysis and interpolation Monte Carlo simulations to address variability and uncertainty