Quantitative Methods in Marine Science
Description
Numerical tools help to ask scientific questions more efficiently and extract appropriate answers. This course will introduce students to many basic techniques in data analysis and numerical modelling, to help them summarise a problem in mathematical terms, plan experiments or field sampling campaigns, and gather insights from the data collected. Students will learn how to identify sources of variation in biological data and decide on sampling/experimental units and replicates. Major inferential statistical and data exploration techniques will be taught. Numerical models will be introduced as a way to simplify and formalise a system. A programming language (R) will be used to apply all those techniques.
Learning Outcomes
Design an experiment or field sampling campaign to test hypotheses
Select appropriate data analysis techniques considering assumptions of tests and nature of the data to be analysed
Critically evaluate/ interpret the output of basic inferential statistics
Present data and model output graphically