Statistical methods used in research concerning endangered and threatened animal species of Puerto Rico: A meta-study

S.J. Rivera; K.M. Alpi; Jaime A. Collazo; M.K. Stoskopf

doi:10.18475/cjos.v51i2.a10

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Statistical methods used in research concerning endangered and threatened animal species of Puerto Rico: A meta-study

S.J. Rivera·K.M. Alpi·Jaime A. Collazo·M.K. Stoskopf

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Abstract

A concern about statistics in wildlife studies, particularly of endangered and threatened species, is whether the data collected meet the assumptions necessary for the use of parametric statistics. This study identified published papers on the nine endangered and six threatened species found only on Puerto Rico using five different databases. The results from the Zoological Record database identified the most articles, including all identified by the other databases. Of the 222 identified articles, 108 included some form of statistics, 26 used only descriptive statistics, 34 included only parametric statistics, 26 used only nonparametric statistics, and 22 reported both parametric and nonparametric statistical analyses. This meta-study showed that the percentage of articles with no statistical treatment decreased in the most recent 20 years, and that although parametric statistics continue to be the most commonly used in published wildlife studies of Puerto Rican wildlife, there has been a distinct increase in the use of nonparametric statistics over time.

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Caribbean Journal of Science Article

Source-reported bounding extent: 17.89880355641135° to 18.57988531442932° latitude; -67.27875878556765° to -65.58075886661939° longitude. This indicates report coverage, not an exact sampling location. View area on OpenStreetMap.

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S.J. Rivera, K.M. Alpi, Jaime A. Collazo, M.K. Stoskopf. 2021. Statistical methods used in research concerning endangered and threatened animal species of Puerto Rico: A meta-study. https://doi.org/10.18475/cjos.v51i2.a10

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