Observations on the Use of Cluster Analysis in Botany with an Ecological Example

Abstract

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.. British Ecological Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Ecology.

The Distribution of European Pteridophytes: A Numerical Analysis

“…Of the large number of numerical classificatory methods currently available, the polythetic agglomerative hierarchical procedure of minimum-variance or error sum-ofsquares cluster analysis (Ward, 1963;Orloci, 1967;Wishart, 1969a;Pritchard and Anderson, 1971) was used. It is a versatile technique that is both intuitively sensible and computationally efficient (see Cunningham and Ogilvie, 1972;and Pritchard and Anderson, 1971 for a comparison of cluster methods).…”

“…It is a versatile technique that is both intuitively sensible and computationally efficient (see Cunningham and Ogilvie, 1972;and Pritchard and Anderson, 1971 for a comparison of cluster methods). The method seeks to cluster individuals together so as to minimize the total within-group error sum-ofsquares.…”

“…The FORTRAN IV program CLUSTER written by the author and B. Huntley and based on the algorithms of Wishart (1969a) and Pritchard and Anderson (1971) was used for the minimum-variance cluster analyses. The program PCOORD, much modified ir ^F ig.…”

On association-analysis and the classification of plant communities

“…Moore 1972). These kinds of 'misclassifications' occur regularly in association-analysis (Ivimey-Cook & Proctor 1966, Lambert & Williams 1966, Kershaw 1968, Scheepers 1969, Pritchard & Anderson 1971, Madgwick & Desrochers 1972, Coetzee 1972. Such 'misclassified' relev6s, which according to Lambert & Dale (t964) are unlikely to seriously disturb the general ecological picture conveyed by a classification, will however reduce the homogeneity of resulting groups considerably and thereby reduce their ecological reliability.…”

Assessment of distribution patterns for the grey kangaroo within southern Queensland : an application and appraisal of faecal pellet counts and aerial survey for the study of grey kangaroo density and distribution

“…to ecological studies (e.g. Pritchard and Anderson, 1971;Clifford and Stephenson, 1975;Wishart, 1975). Cluster analysis of fifty sample plots by means of Ward's algorithm.…”