[Taxacom] Principal Components Analaysis - help with a good reference and software

[Michael Denslow]

For a book, I would recommend Legendre & Legendre, Numerical Ecology. However, reading a paper where the analysis was done in your context is always helpful.

Mike Palmer's site is excellent. I have used it extensively.
http://ordination.okstate.edu/

I would also put in a plug for R. It is highly worth the investment and the price is right (free). The user support is unbelievable.

PCA can be run in the basic R setup but there is good documentation in the add on Vegan package. R also has many other functions and packages that could be relevant to this line of work.

hope this helps,

Michael

Michael Denslow

Graduate Student
I.W. Carpenter Jr. Herbarium [BOON]
Department of Biology
Appalachian State University
Boone, North Carolina U.S.A.

-- AND --

Communications Manager
Southeast Regional Network of Expertise and Collections
sernec.org

> 
> Could someone please recommend me a good student text
> (print or internet
> site) explaining the theory and practice of Principal
> Components
> Analysis as it is applied to assessing morphological
> variation in
> biology?
> 
>  
> 
> I am also looking around at various software options for
> PCA, so advice
> on this would also be very helpful.
> 
>  
> 
> Regards
> 
> Mark
> 
>  
> 
> Dr Mark F. Watson
> 
> Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, 20a Inverleith Row,
> Edinburgh, EH3 5LR,
> U.K.
> 
> Tel: +44 (0)131 248 2828   Fax: +44 (0)131 248 2901
> 
>  
> 
> RBGE website: www.rbge.org.uk
> <http://www.rbge.org.uk> 
> 
> Flora of Nepal website (including Darwin Initiative
> project):
> www.floraofnepal.org <http://www.floraofnepal.org> 
> 
> Umbellifer website: www.umbellifers.com
> 
> Flora of China website: flora.huh.harvard.edu/china
> 
> Prometheus website: www.prometheusdb.org
> 
>  
> 
> 
> --
> The Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh is a Charity registered
> in Scotland (No SC007983)