Above Average: MSU ecologists review a century of statistical ecology

by Caleb Hess, Michigan State University
May 14, 2024

Crunching numbers isn’t exactly how Neil Gilbert, a postdoctoral researcher at Michigan State University, envisioned a career in ecology.

“I think it’s a little funny that I’m doing this statistical ecology work because I was always OK at math, but never particularly enjoyed it,” he explained. “As an undergrad, I thought, I’ll be an ecologist — that means that I can be outside, looking at birds, that sort of thing.”

As it turns out,” he chuckled, “ecology is a very quantitative discipline.”

Now, working in the Zipkin Quantitative Ecology lab, Gilbert is the lead author on a new article in a special collection of the journal Ecology that reviews the past century of statistical ecology.

Statistical ecology, or the study of ecological systems using mathematical equations, probability and empirical data, has grown over the last century. As increasingly large datasets and complex questions took center stage in ecological research, new tools and approaches were needed to properly address them.

Keep reading: https://integrativebiology.natsci.msu.edu/news/052024-zipkin-stat_ecology.aspx

Read the Ecology paper: https://esajournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ecy.4283