An Introduction to Using GIS in Marine Biology: Supplementary Workbook One: 2 (PSLS)

Synopsis:

This book provides five exercises for novice GIS users who wish to get some practical experience in using GIS in marine biology. It is a companion book to An Introduction To Using GIS In Marine Biology rather than a stand-alone GIS book. It written for marine biologists by a marine biologist, and all exercises use data from a real marine biological research project.

Detailed Description:

This book is the first companion volume to ‘An Introduction To Using GIS In Marine Biology’. It is designed to augment the information on using GIS in marine biology provided in that book, and, indeed, to be used alongside it rather than to be an independent, stand-alone volume. This book will be of most interest to those who have already read ‘An Introduction To Using GIS In Marine Biology’.

This book consists of five exercises on the practical use of GIS in marine biology using ESRI’s ArcView 9.3 or ArcGIS 9.3 software. These exercises are based around mapping species distributions, and range from making a simple map of the locations where a species was recorded for inclusion in a publication or presentation to creating grids of species presence-absence, abundance and density. They use real data sets which can be downloaded from www.GISInEcology.com/books/data/ marinebiologysupplementaryworkbook. Working through these exercises will help the novice GIS user get experience working with GIS and so develop their GIS skills. Unlike most other GIS tutorials, this information is specifically presented in a marine biological context.

These exercises are presented in the same easy-to-follow flow diagram-based format first introduced in the ‘How To...’ section of ‘An Introduction To Using GIS In Marine Biology’. They are accompanied by figures which show the user how their GIS project should look as they progress through the each exercise, allowing them to compare their own work to the expected results.

Dr. Colin D. MacLeod has twenty years experience as a marine biologist working with whales and dolphins, seabirds and squid. He has also spent over a decade working with geographic information systems (GIS) and teaching marine biologists and ecologists how to use it in their research.