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SPEAKER: |
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TITLE: |
"Statistics in the Environment" |
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DAY: |
Wednesday, November 25, 1998 |
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TIME: |
3:30 p.m. [Coffee in BSB-202 at 3:00 p.m.] |
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PLACE: |
BSB-108 |
Issues of primary importance to the maintenance of a healthy environment are the assessment of status and the detection and estimation of changes in status. Questions which at first appear to be straight-forward, often are ill-defined and complex. The definition of health, choice of an indicator of environmental quality and separation of natural variation from that induced by a stressor are examples of matters that need consideration. The use of statistical thinking and statistical methods to assess environmental health are inextricably intertwined with such matters. This connection will be discussed and statistical methods in use will be briefly described for two examples: the assessment of trends in water quality and in bird populations.
Dr Sylvia Esterby received her Bachelor's degree from Queens and her Ph.D. from the University of Waterloo. After brief positions at Waterloo and Agriculture Canada, she joined what is now the National Water Research Institute, a branch of Environment Canada, where she held the position of Research Scientist until recently. She is now teaching at McMaster. Dr Esterby's work has been primarily in the area of environmental applications and she has been active in promoting environmetrics.
The following references have been provided by Dr Esterby to be used as background for her talk. References [1] & [2] are on reserve at Thode Library (STATS 770: Statistics Seminar).
[1] Esterby, S.R. (1996), "Review of Methods for the Detection and Estimation of Trends with Emphasis on Water Quality Applications," HYDROLOGICAL PROCESSES 10, pp. 127-149.
[2] Esterby, S.R. (1993), "Trend Analysis Methods for Environmental Data," ENVIRONMETRICS 4, pp. 459-481.
[3] Geissler, P. H. and B.R. Noon (1981), "Estimates of Avian Population Trends from the North American Breeding Bird Survey," STUDIES IN AVIAN BIOLOGY 6, pp. 42-51.
[4] Link, W.A. and J.A. Sauer (1997), "Estimation of Population Trajectories from Count Data," BIOMETRICS 53, pp. 488-496.