Suggested references for self-education
Very few universities have courses or workshops on ordination techniques.
Therefore, most practitioners have to learn the techniques on their own.
The following books are recommended for self-education. They are presented
in order of increasing complexity, and mathematical background expected.
Therefore, I recommend reading them in the following order! It is not necessary
to go beyond the first few stages in order to start applying the methods. After
reading the first few, you will be able to just skim the remaining, to
find out what is unique in each. Although Gauch 1982 may seem a bit out of
date, I still recommend it as an introduction to gradient analysis. It,
more than any other work, ties in ecological theory with gradient analysis in an
approachable way.
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*Lep, J., and P. milauer. 2003. Multivariate Analysis of Ecological Data
using Canoco. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK. AND/OR *McCune, B., and
J. B. Grace. 2002. Analysis of Ecological Communities. MjM Software Design,
Gleneden Beach, Oregon. These books have quite different flavors and
perspectives - reading both will either help understand the field more
thoroughly, or will cause more confusion. I like both works, and all of
the authors, but I agree more with the approach of Lep and milauer.
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Gauch, H. G., Jr. 1982. Multivariate Analysis in Community Structure. Cambridge
University Press, Cambridge AND/OR Causton, D. R. 1988. An introduction
to vegetation analysis. Unwin Hyman, London. AND/OR
*Kent, M., and P. Coker. 1992. Vegetation description and analysis: a practical
approach. Belhaven Press, London.
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Pielou, E. C. 1984. The Interpretation of Ecological Data: A Primer on
Classification and Ordination. Wiley, New York AND/OR *Økland,
R. H. 1990. Vegetation ecology: theory, methods and applications with reference
to Fennoscandia. Sommerfeltia Supplement 1:1-233.
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*ter Braak, C. J. F., and I. C. Prentice. 1988. A theory of gradient analysis.
Adv. Ecol. Res. 18:271-313.
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*Jongman, R. H. G., C. J. F. ter Braak, and O. F. R. van Tongeren, editors.
1987. Data Analysis in Community and Landscape Ecology. Pudoc, Wageningen,
The Netherlands. (Now available in a 1995 edition by Cambridge University
Press) AND/OR Digby, P. G. N., and R. A. Kempton. 1987.
Population and Community Biology Series: Multivariate Analysis of Ecological
Communities. Chapman and Hall, London.
The following two books are indispensible references. The first one
has a thorough coverage of multivariate methods, time-series, and spatial
analysis, as applied in ecology. The second is not merely a manual,
as the title might imply. It gives the theoretical foundations behind
the eigenanalysis-based ordination methods.
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*Legendre, P. and L. Legendre. 1998. Numerical Ecology. 2nd English edition.
Elsevier, Amsterdam. 853 pages.
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*ter Braak, C. J. F., and P. milauer. 1998. CANOCO Reference Manual and
User's Guide to Canoco for Windows: Software for Canonical Community Ordination
(version 4). Microcomputer Power (Ithaca, NY USA) 352 pp.
The following reference is very good for Bray-Curtis (or Polar) Ordination,
but also has a good, accessible introduction to other methods. As you might
expect from the title, there is strong advocacy for one particular method.
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Beals, E. W. 1984. Bray-Curtis ordination: an effective strategy for analysis
of multivariate ecological data. Adv. Ecol. Res. 14:1-55.
* indicates that Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) is discussed.
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