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

[Lisa Lumley]

Hello Mark,

I've been using Ginkgo for the short term - a program that you can  
download off the internet for free. It is easy & fast to use with nice  
3D graphs. However, R is probably the better way to go though it will  
take more time (have to learn command language).

For a book - I used 'Analysis of Ecological Communities' by McCune &  
Grace, 2002 - However, some interpretation is required as it is for  
ecology rather than taxonomy.

Best of luck!
Lisa


Lisa Lumley
PhD Candidate
Department of Biological Sciences
University of Alberta

Ph: 780-492-3080
Fax: 780-492-7150
Email: llumley at ualberta.ca






Quoting "Michael Denslow" <mwdenslow at yahoo.com>:

> 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)
>
>
>
>
>
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