Practical Field Ecology: A Project Guide -- Contents -- Tables -- Figures -- Boxes -- Case Studies -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- 1 Preparation -- Choosing a topic for study -- Ecological research questions -- Monitoring individual species and groups of species -- Monitoring species richness -- Monitoring population sizes and density -- Monitoring community structure -- Monitoring behaviour -- A note of caution -- Creating aims, objectives and hypotheses -- Reviewing the literature -- Primary literature -- Secondary literature -- Other sources of information -- Search terms -- Reading papers -- Practical considerations -- Legal aspects -- Health and safety issues -- Implementation -- Time management -- Project design and data management -- Designing and setting up experiments and surveys -- Types of data -- Sampling designs -- Planning statistical analysis -- Choosing sampling methods -- Summary -- 2 Monitoring Site Characteristics -- Site selection -- Site characterisation -- Habitat mapping -- Examination of landscape scale -- Measuring microclimatic variables -- Monitoring substrates -- Monitoring water -- Other physical attributes -- Measuring biological attributes -- Identification -- 3 Sampling Static Organisms -- Sampling techniques for static organisms -- Quadrat sampling -- Pin-Frames -- Transects -- Distribution of static organisms -- Forestry techniques -- 4 Sampling Mobile Organisms -- General issues -- Distribution of mobile organisms -- Direct observation -- Behaviour -- Indirect methods -- Capture techniques -- Marking individuals -- Radio-Tracking -- Invertebrates -- Direct observation -- Indirect methods -- Capture techniques -- Marking individuals -- Capturing aquatic invertebrates -- Netting -- Suction sampling -- Benthic coring -- Drags, dredges and grabs -- Wet extraction -- Artificial substrate samplers -- Baited traps.

Capturing soil-living invertebrates -- Dry sieving -- Floatation and phase-separation -- Tullgren funnels as a method of dry extraction -- Chemical extraction -- Electrical extraction -- Capturing ground-active invertebrates -- Pitfall traps -- Suction samplers -- Emergence traps -- Capturing invertebrates from plants -- Pootering -- Sweep netting -- Beating -- Fogging -- Capturing airborne invertebrates -- Sticky traps -- Using attractants -- Refuges -- Flight interception (window and malaise) traps -- Light traps -- Rotary traps -- Water traps -- Fish -- Direct observation -- Indirect methods -- Capture techniques -- Marking individuals -- Amphibians -- Direct observation -- Indirect methods -- Capture techniques -- Marking individuals -- Reptiles -- Direct observation -- Indirect methods -- Capture techniques -- Marking individuals -- Birds -- Direct observation -- Indirect methods -- Capture techniques -- Marking individuals -- Mammals -- Direct observation -- Indirect methods -- Capture techniques -- Marking individuals -- 5 Analysing and Interpreting Information -- Keys to tests -- Exploring and describing data -- Transforming and screening data -- Spatial and temporal distributions -- Population estimation techniques: densities and population sizes -- Richness and diversity -- Similarity, dissimilarity and distance coefficients -- Recording descriptive statistics -- Testing hypotheses using basic statistical tests and simple general linear models -- Differences between samples -- Relationships between variables -- Associations between frequency distributions -- More advanced general linear models for predictive analysis -- Multiple regression -- Analysis of covariance and multivariate analysis of variance -- Discriminant function analysis -- Generalized linear models -- Extensions of the generalized linear model.

Statistical methods to examine pattern and structure in communities: classification, indicator species and ordination -- Classification -- Indicator species analysis -- Ordination -- 6 Presenting the Information -- Structure -- Title -- Abstract -- Acknowledgements -- Contents -- Introduction -- Methods -- Results -- Discussion -- References -- Appendices -- Writing style -- Tense -- Numbers -- Abbreviations -- Punctuation -- Choice of font -- Common mistakes -- Computer files -- Summary -- References -- Appendix 1: Glossary of Statistical Terms -- Index.