SGER: Ecological Meta-Analysis: Synthesizing the Results of Field Experiments on Competition and Predation

该项目将使用荟萃分析来综合独立生态研究的结果。Meta分析是一种统计学方法，它对解决其他领域长期存在的问题产生了深远的影响，但以前从未在生态学中使用过。这项研究将扩展现有的从社会科学和流行病学中提取的荟萃分析技术，以分析生态数据并解决生态问题。目前用于综合生态学研究成果的方法在逻辑上、概念上和统计上都有缺陷。Meta分析提供了一个更合理的选择，但现有的统计模型不足以完成生态学中的许多重要任务，例如检查因素之间的相互作用。这项拟议的研究将从生态学研究(混合模型和析因设计)发展元分析统计模型。然后，这些模型将被用来解决一个特定的问题，即在捕食者存在和不存在的情况下竞争的影响。元分析可能会改变从生态学实验结果中得出结论的方式，并可能对该领域数据的收集、分析和解释产生重大影响。

This project will use meta-analysis to synthesize the results of independent ecological studies. Meta-analysis is a statistical approach that has had a profound impact on the resolution of longstanding questions in other fields, but has not previously been used in ecology. The research will extend existing meta-analysis techniques taken from the social sciences and epidemiology to analyze ecological data and to address ecological questions. Methods currently used to synthesize research results in ecology are logically, conceptually, and statistically flawed. Meta-analysis offers a sounder alternative, but the statistical models available are inadequate for many important tasks in ecology, such as examining interactions among factors. The proposed study will develop meta-analytic statistical models from ecological research (mixed models and factorial designs). These models will then be used to resolve a specific question, that of the effects of competition in the presence and in the absence of predators. Meta-analysis can potentially change the way conclusions are drawn from the outcome of experiments in ecology, and may have a major influence on the way data are collected, analyzed and interpreted in this field.