SUBTERRANEAN ECOLOGICAL RESEARCH ANDMULTIVARIATE STATISTICS: A REVIEW (1945-2006)

摘要

Subterranean ecosystem studies using multivariate ordination and/oragglomerative classification statistical methods were reviewed in the Science CitationIndex (SC') between 1945 and 2006. Nearly 57,000 publications cited subterraneanhabitats or their associated biota in the SCI abstracts, however, multivariate statisticsapplied to strictly hypogean taxa occurred in only 65 papers from 1990 onwards. Over90% of the multivariate applications were devoted to morphometric or genetic studies ofsingle species and to relationships between the environment and species assemblages. Interms of taxa and ecosystem types, stygobite and waterless cave studies featuringmultivariate applications predominated, respectively. Only six different methods (Agglo-merative Clustering, Canonical Correspondence Analysis, Correspondence Analysis,Discriminant Analysis, non-metric Multidimensional Scaling, Principal ComponentAnalysis) were used among the >30 multivariate techniques available within thebiostatistical toolbox. The retrieved set of publications was sorted in a simple table bykeyword according to type of biota, habitat, research topic and multivariate method,while online biostatistical resources are appended. Further comments are made on theuse of statistics in the biological sciences in general.