Category Archives: New research

15 Forms of Invasiveness

Posted on June 27, 2016 by Michael McCarthy

You might think they should be easy to identify – invasive species are seemingly everywhere we look, even carried inadvertently by people to the polar regions. And as one of the biggest threats to biodiversity, identifying which species are likely … Continue reading →

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CSI: Ecology. Efficiency of eDNA sampling

Posted on June 1, 2016 by Michael McCarthy

Detecting a species from the DNA it left behind seems so much like CSI: Ecology. DNA deposited in the environment (eDNA for the cool kids), which can then be collected and identified, is increasingly advocated for ecological studies (Ficetola et … Continue reading →

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While I was sleeping: optimising ecological surveys over space and time

Posted on April 11, 2016 by Michael McCarthy

With the recent online publication of a new paper, here’s a blog post about how the research arose – a fun confluence of mathematical and cognitive collaboration across two sides of the world. And some of it was achieved while … Continue reading →

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Effects of stand age on fire severity

Posted on August 4, 2014 by Michael McCarthy

Our new paper shows that the probability of crown fire in mountain forests under extreme weather conditions is greatest when trees are about 15 years old. This has implications for debates about how timber harvesting influences the risk of fire. … Continue reading →

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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 →

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Joint Species Distribution Models

Posted on March 17, 2014 by Michael McCarthy

Update: The paper is now available (free) from Methods in Ecology and Evolution. Update 2: In the tutorial on how to use this method, we refer to the file “fit.JSDM.r”. This is the R script on the journal website named, … Continue reading →

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The yellow-bellied sapsucker & I

Posted on February 26, 2014 by Michael McCarthy

I work in The University of Melbourne’s School of Botany, yet I study a range of organisms, not just plants. I’m particularly pleased when I get to work on invertebrates, because they are critical to ecosystem function on Earth, yet … Continue reading →

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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 →

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Statistical inference in ecology

Posted on June 25, 2013 by Michael McCarthy

Update: a pdf of an updated version of this chapter is available here. If this post had a single take-home message, it would be this: whatever statistical method you use, make sure that you use and report it appropriately. I’m … Continue reading →

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Considering uncertainty in environmental management decisions

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Michael McCarthy

This is a post about a new paper, which forms part of the PhD thesis of Yacov Salomon. Yacov is jointly enrolled in the School of Botany and the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at The University of Melbourne. Salomon, … Continue reading →

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