A four-step Bayesian workflow for improving ecological science

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Wolkovich, EM, Davies, T Jonathan, Pearse, William D, Betancourt, Michael
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2024
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author Wolkovich, EM
Davies, T Jonathan
Pearse, William D
Betancourt, Michael
author_facet Wolkovich, EM
Davies, T Jonathan
Pearse, William D
Betancourt, Michael
contents Growing anthropogenic pressures have increased the need for robust predictive models. Meeting this demand requires approaches that can handle bigger data to yield forecasts that capture the variability and underlying uncertainty of ecological systems. Bayesian models are especially adept at this and are growing in use in ecology. Yet many ecologists today are not trained to take advantage of the bigger ecological data needed to generate more flexible robust models. Here we describe a broadly generalizable workflow for statistical analyses and show how it can enhance training in ecology. Building on the increasingly computational toolkit of many ecologists, this approach leverages simulation to integrate model building and testing for empirical data more fully with ecological theory. In turn this workflow can fit models that are more robust and well-suited to provide new ecological insights -- allowing us to refine where to put resources for better estimates, better models, and better forecasts.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2408_02603
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle A four-step Bayesian workflow for improving ecological science
Wolkovich, EM
Davies, T Jonathan
Pearse, William D
Betancourt, Michael
Quantitative Methods
Growing anthropogenic pressures have increased the need for robust predictive models. Meeting this demand requires approaches that can handle bigger data to yield forecasts that capture the variability and underlying uncertainty of ecological systems. Bayesian models are especially adept at this and are growing in use in ecology. Yet many ecologists today are not trained to take advantage of the bigger ecological data needed to generate more flexible robust models. Here we describe a broadly generalizable workflow for statistical analyses and show how it can enhance training in ecology. Building on the increasingly computational toolkit of many ecologists, this approach leverages simulation to integrate model building and testing for empirical data more fully with ecological theory. In turn this workflow can fit models that are more robust and well-suited to provide new ecological insights -- allowing us to refine where to put resources for better estimates, better models, and better forecasts.
title A four-step Bayesian workflow for improving ecological science
topic Quantitative Methods
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.02603