We will be giving a one day course on using the popular R package mgcv
to build complex (and simple!) ecological models. Our aim is to take
participants with an understanding of the glm() function in R to the
point where they can fit generalized additive and random effects models
using mgcv. We'll be taking data from a number of different ecological
sources, showing how mgcv can be used in a variety of modelling situations.
Saturday August 6th 8am-5pm
204, Ft Lauderdale Convention Center
Instructors: Eric J Pedersen, Gavin Simpson, David L Miller, Noam Ross
Course website: https://eric-pedersen.github.io/mgcv-esa-workshop/
Registration is $25.
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Detailed workshop description:
To address the increase in both quantity and complexity of available
data, ecologists require flexible, robust statistical models, as well as
software to perform such analyses. This workshop will focus on how a
single tool, the mgcv package for the R language, can be used to fit
models to data from a wide range of sources.
mgcv is one of the most popular packages for modelling non-linear
relationships. However, many users do not know how versatile and
powerful a tool it can be. This workshop will focus on teaching
participants how to use mgcv in a wide variety of situations (including
spatio-temporal, zero-inflated, heavy-tailed, time series, and survival
data) and advanced use of mgcv (fitting smooth interactions, seasonal
effects, spatial effects, Markov random fields and varying-coefficient
models).
The workshop will give paricipants an understanding of:
- practical elements of smoothing theory, with a focus on why they would
choose to use different types of smoothers
- model checking and selection
- the range of modelling possibilities using mgcv.
Participants will be assumed to be familiar with the basics of R
(loading/manipulating data, functions, and plotting) and regression in R
(lm() and glm()). The organizers have extensive practical experience
with ecological statistics and modelling using mgcv.
Participants should ensure that they are running the latest version of R
(http://www.r-project.org), mgcv and ggplot2 (running update.packages()
in R) on their laptops before they arrive.
