Category Archives: Ecological indices

My talk at #ISEC2014

Posted on July 4, 2014 by Michael McCarthy

I’m speaking tomorrow on the last afternoon of the International Statistical Ecology Conference in Montpellier. I’ll be arguing that usual metrics (e.g., AIC) to measure the performance of species distribution models (SDMs) might not actually be relevant for selecting models … Continue reading →

Posted in CEED, Communication, Detectability, Ecological indices, Ecological models, New research, Probability and Bayesian analysis | 1 Comment

Writing concisely about indices of extinction risk

Posted on November 11, 2013 by Michael McCarthy

Edit: An updated version of the paper mentioned in this post is available at bioRxiv: http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/000760 (and now it is published: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12308) A post on the joys of editing science. For three years I have worked on a paper in … Continue reading →

Posted in Communication, Ecological indices, New research | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

INTECOL talk, #INT13

Posted on August 20, 2013 by Michael McCarthy

I’m talking in the S11 Maths, Models & Methods session at INTECOL on Tuesday at 11:15 in room 4. The topic is “Developing biodiversity indices using models”. A copy of the slides is available here. I’ll also auto-tweet a little … Continue reading →

Posted in CEED, Communication, Ecological indices, Probability and Bayesian analysis | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Monday at #ESA2012 – a ripper

Posted on August 7, 2012 by Michael McCarthy

Now that was a great opening day of the ESA conference in Portland! OK, yesterday was the official opening, and I liked Jane Lubchenco’s talk, but this was the first full day. And it was perhaps the best conference day … Continue reading →

Posted in Communication, Ecological indices, Ecological models, Women in science | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Building resilient ecosystems

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Michael McCarthy

Andrew Bennett and Dale Nimmo are hosting a forum on resilience at Deakin University on 12th April. The flyer for the event is here. Registration is essential if you wish to attend (see the flyer). The forum is titled “Building … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecological indices, Ecological models, New research | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

An index of gravity, ecology style

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Michael McCarthy

Update (13 Nov 2014): Relevant to this is a paper that has just been published in which we show how indices of extinction risk can be developed from models of population dynamics. Following some editing, I have turned a previous … Continue reading →

Posted in CEED, Ecological indices, NERP | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

The SAFE debate

Posted on December 2, 2011 by Michael McCarthy

I’ve been involved in a debate about the SAFE index, which has arisen from a paper that was published in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment by Clements et al., and from the subsequent media reporting of the article. Corey … Continue reading →

Posted in Ecological indices, New research | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Indices behaving badly

Posted on November 14, 2011 by Michael McCarthy

I have been thinking about indices in ecology and environmental science lately, partly because of concerns about the SAFE index. Indices are used for environmental monitoring, setting management priorities, and evaluating management actions. They are also found in basic ecology … Continue reading →

Posted in CEED, Ecological indices | Tagged , , | 4 Comments