BMSC Bamfield Marine Sciences Centre

This course trains students to analyze ecological change using both legacy and newly collected biodiversity data. Through fieldwork and hands-on data aggregation, students will gain field experience and contribute to reusable long-term datasets. Working in R, students learn to aggregate, visualize, and repurpose data while testing hypotheses about drivers of change in species distributions and assemblages. The course builds skills in data interoperability, effective science communication, and ecological forecasting. Over three weeks, students progress from exploring temporal and spatial change, to integrating life-history and trait data, to completing collaborative research projects culminating in written and oral presentations.

Skills & Outcomes:
Students taking Ecological Data Synthesis will:

• Learn the principles of repurposing data for new hypothesis-testing
• Become proficient in biodiversity change science
• Gain experience in evaluating hypotheses about changes in biodiversity across time and space
• Learn principles of ecological forecasting
• Understand the role of data reproducibility in macroecology

Upon completion of this course, students will:

• Possess hands-on experience in field-based data collection
• Gain skills in data organization, the creation of compelling data visualizations, and science communication
• Possess programming skills for highly reproducible data science
• Gain formal and practical collaboration skills, a core practice in data synthesis science
• Be able to create interactive data visualizations using previously collected data, and using the programming language, R, to visualize data and test hypotheses

Boat Use: Boat driving is optional for Ecological Data Synthesis. Students who wish to drive boats at BMSC must hold a PCOC and valid first aid certificate and will participate in an introductory boat check-out on the first day of orientation.

Prerequisites: Completion of an introductory Ecology course and experience using the programming language R are required prerequisites for this course. Completion of one or more third-year/upper-level Ecology courses is strongly recommended. 

Physical requirements: Field and lab work may include some or all of the following activities: walking and climbing on rocky shorelines to collect specimens, working in small and medium sized boats in coastal waters.

Required Text: None.