A systematic review of the use of statistics in studies of restoration ecology of arid areas

Abstract

Restoration ecology is the study of restoration or restoration practices in degraded areas. It is of particular importance in arid environments due to the heavy impact humans have had in these areas. Some studies of restoration may require different statistics due to the unique challenges faced when examining degraded areas. A systematic review was conducted to assess the use of statistics in the field. It was determined that the field and influence of restoration ecology had increased dramatically since its development. Statistics are widely used in the study of restoration of arid areas. Major tests are similar to those found in other ecological studies such as ANOVAs and linear regressions. There were a few less common tests used in some of the studies. These include tests such as the Mantel test which may be useful to restoration ecology and should be explored further. Finally it was determined that the description of how statistics were used in the study was particularly important. The description should be detailed to help other researchers understand the findings of the paper. This will help to advance the field and the restoration of arid environments.PeerJ PrePrints | http://dx.doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.551v1 | CC-BY 4.0 Open Access | rec:

A systematic review of the use of statistics in studies of restoration ecology of arid areas

“…Statistical analysis also allows for more comparisons to be made over more sites or repeats such as Peters et al with 4800 repeats (2008). Studies with statistics tended to have larger sample sizes than those without (mean sample size 4.4 repeats for sites without statistics versus 489.3 repeats for studies with) (Noble 2014). It is not feasible to compare more than a few sites by observation alone.…”

“…21 different restoration factors were examined, with revegetation, invasive species, cryptobiotic soil, fire and herbivory being studied the most (Noble 2014). Statistics were used in 93% of the studies (fig.…”