Training course „Statistics and modeling of wetlands"

The main objective of the course was to develop skills to understand the theoretical background of the methods and the practical use of approaches in the analysis of multivariate ecological data based on the PRIMER 6 software. The course was held at the headquarters of the CLGE-BAS with an invited lecturer Professor Victor Manuel dos Santos Quintino from Portugal, representing the PRIMER-E Ltd. Twenty participants (young researchers and PhD students from CLGE-BAS and MSc students from universities) completed the 5 day course.

• The following statistical techniques were covered:
• Samples, variables and measurement scales;
• Resemblance functions for the analysis of variables;
• Cluster analysis;
• Ordination analysis (NMDS, PCO, PCA);
• Hypothesis testing of multivariate data (PERMANOVA).

The PRIMER-E Ltd provided the course participants with 21 copies of the “methods” manual, a further two "10 seat teaching licenses" and two single-user academic licenses of PRIMERv6 were provided.

The participants brought their own data for practical exercises and were given the opportunity to explore them learning plenty of secrets in best available statistical practices. Having only basic statistical knowledge in the beginning, the participants left the course with expert knowledge in data exploration and analyses.

The course was successfully taught and all participants expressed their appreciation for the high qualification and experience of the lectures, the balanced scheme of theory and practice and the excellent organization of the course itself. All the participants expressed opinion that the course was above their expectations and they wanted to improve further their knowledge and practical performance, being interested mainly in multivariate analysis and modeling.

The course was undoubtedly very helpful not only in raising the qualification of the participants but in strengthening professional contacts, in promoting exchange of data and building plans for the future cooperation. The participants were given special certificate of completion of the statistical course.

Photos from the event are presented here.