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Chance and randomness in design versus model-based approaches to impact assessment: comments on Bulleri et al. (2007)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2008

ALLAN STEWART-OATEN
ALLAN STEWART-OATEN*
Affiliation:
Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93110-9610USA
*
*Correspondence: Dr Allen Stewart-Oaten e-mail: [email protected]
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Extract

Bulleri et al. (2007) describe local environmental impacts as ‘assessed by comparing the disturbed site with one or more [unaffected] reference sites . . . [which] can be thought of as a random sample from a population of sites as in design-based approaches (Underwood 1992), or as a set of covariates correlated with the disturbed site as in model-based analyses (Stewart-Oaten & Bence 2001)’ (brackets added). This is misleading. These two approaches are not alternatives. The latter paper shows that reference sites are not essential and that the former paper's use of them is invalid.

Type
Comment
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , March 2008 , pp. 8 - 10
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 2008

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References

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