Hierarchical non-linear mixed-effects models for estimating growth parameters of western Mediterranean solitary coral populations
| Autor: | Barbara Cafarelli, Elettra Pignotti, Daniela Cocchi, Crescenza Calculli |
|---|---|
| Přispěvatelé: | Cafarelli, Barbara, Calculli, Crescenza, Cocchi, Daniela, Pignotti, Elettra |
| Jazyk: | angličtina |
| Rok vydání: | 2017 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
Mediterranean climate Coral PE1_14 Statistics Within-between site variability Balanophyllia europaea Von bertalanffy 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Solitary corals Von Bertalanffy growth function Parameter estimation Within-between site variability Environmental covariates Uncertainty modelling Statistics Parameter estimation Environmental covariate Coral growth Solitary coral Mathematics SH3_10 Urban studies regional studies Ecology 010604 marine biology & hydrobiology Ecological Modeling SECS-S/01 Statistica Uncertainty modelling Von Bertalanffy growth function Nonlinear system Ordinary least squares Mixed effects SH3_2 Environmental change and society |
| Zdroj: | Cafarelli, Barbara ; Calculli, Crescenza ; Cocchi, Daniela ; Pignotti, Elettra (2017) Hierarchical non-linear mixed-effects models for estimating growth parameters of western Mediterranean solitary coral populations. Ecological Modelling, 346 . pp. 1-9. ISSN 0304-3800 |
| Popis: | Marine biologists usually assess coral growth through the von Bertalanffy growth function (VBGF), a func-tion of several biological parameters linked to age by a non-linear relationship. Coral growth parameters are then evaluated via ordinary least squares after a linear transformation of the VBGF. Current litera-ture focuses on linearization techniques, but these methods are often used without considering a careful data examination and the presence of variability in coral of the same age or in coral of the same colony. For these reasons, a more thorough approach based on a hierarchical non-linear mixed-effects model is proposed. This model takes into account the influence of sites’ characteristics to model heterogeneity between sites. Moreover, the contribution of environmental factors and all the reliable information that may influence coral growth can be suitably modelled. Two model specifications based on the standard and new VBGF parameterizations are introduced to analyse the growth of a solitary coral species Bal-anophyllia europaea. Results from the proposed modelling approach show the importance of including environmental conditions for species coral growth and support; furthermore, the results show the impor-tance of the possibility of accounting for variability from different sources in terms of estimated growth curves. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
| Externí odkaz: |
|