Cassie: Multivariate Analysis in Ecology

Ever since the discipline was first established. ecologists have emphasised the extreme complexity of ecology. This com'pJexity has frequently rendered the interpretation of field data almost impossible, or. when interpretation has succeeded. it has usual1y encompassed the more obvious phenomena. and one suspects that, as with an inefficient gold dredge. much of value is left behind in the "taiJings". Much (though certainly not aH) of the necessary mathematicaJ theory,needed to extract the lost information has Jong been available. but has either been unknown to the ecologist, or so time-consuming in application that its use was impracticable. With the advent of the high-speed computer, the logistic difficuJties, at Jeast, have been removed; and the power and elegance of multivariate techniques have been demonstrated in ecoJogy by pioneering works such as those of GoodaH (1954) and WiJliams and Lambert (1959), aJthough Goodall's work was in fact carried out on a Facit hand caJculator. At the same time, the appJication of mathematicaJ theory to ecological situations is not entireJy dear-cut, and many of the methods and concepts are stiJI subject to controversy.