Lack of quantitative training among early-career ecologists: a survey of the problem and potential solutions

Frédéric Barraquand; Thomas H G Ezard; Peter S Joergensen; Naupaka Zimmerman; Scott A Chamberlain; Roberto Salguero-Gómez; Timothy J Curran; Timothée Poisot

doi:10.7287/peerj.preprints.53v1

Lack of quantitative training among early-career ecologists: a survey of the problem and potential solutions

Frédéric Barraquand ¹, Thomas H G Ezard², Peter S Joergensen³, Naupaka Zimmerman⁴, Scott A Chamberlain⁵, Roberto Salguero-Gómez^6,7, Timothy J Curran⁸, Timothée Poisot^9,10

1 Department of Arctic and Marine Biology, University of Tromsø, Tromsø, Norway

2 Centre for Biological Sciences, University of Southampton, Southampton, United Kingdom

3 Center for Macroecology, Evolution and Climate, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

4 Department of Biology, Stanford University, Stanford, USA

5 Biology Department, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada

6 Evolutionary Biodemography Laboratory, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany

7 School of Biological Sciences, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia

8 Department of Ecology, Lincoln University, Lincoln, Canterbury, New Zealand

9 Département de biologie, chimie et géographie, Université du Québec à Rimouski (UQAR), Rimouski, Canada

10 Québec Centre for Biodiversity Sciences, McGill University, Montréal, Canada

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.53v1

Published: 2013-08-28
Accepted: 2013-08-28

Subject Areas: Conservation Biology, Ecology, Environmental Sciences, Science and Medical Education, Statistics
Keywords: education, statistics, mathematics, ecology student, teaching, education, statistics, mathematics, teaching, university curriculum, student

Licence: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Cite this article: Barraquand F, Ezard THG, Joergensen PS, Zimmerman N, Chamberlain SA, Salguero-Gómez R, Curran TJ, Poisot T. 2013. Lack of quantitative training among early-career ecologists: a survey of the problem and potential solutions. PeerJ PrePrints 1:e53v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.53v1

Abstract

Proficiency in mathematics and statistics is essential to modern ecological science, yet few studies have assessed the level of quantitative training received by ecologists. To do so, we conducted an online survey. The 937 respondents were mostly early-career scientists that studied biology as undergraduates. We found a clear self-perceived lack of quantitative training: 75% are not satisfied with their understanding of mathematical models; 75% feel the level of mathematics was “too low” in their ecology classes; 90% wanted more mathematics classes for ecologists; and 95% more statistics classes. Respondents thought that 30% of classes in ecology-related degrees should be focused on quantitative disciplines; likely more than what is taught in most universities. The main suggestion to improve quantitative training was to relate theoretical and statistical modeling to applied ecological problems. Improving quantitative training will require more mathematics classes for ecology-related degrees, and also more ecology classes containing mathematical and statistical examples.

Supplemental Information

Supplementary Information

Appendix 1: Questionnaire and Supplementary Figures S1 to 4

DOI: 10.7287/peerj.preprints.53v1/supp-1

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