Basic Statistical Ecology Software

Abstract

Information technology plays a vital part in various studies in the field of ecology. It opens the way for more concise and more accurate results for ecological research and reduces effort, especially in the manipulation of data. In Davao Oriental State College of Science and Technology, ecologists seek assistance from statisticians for their studies. However, some of these statisticians manually compute their data, which often leads to a waste of time, effort, and resources. This software is designed to be user-friendly. It was developed in a Visual Basic environment, which provides a fast and easy way to calculate basic statistical operations. It has a Graphical User Interface which allows users to just click the desired commands instead of typing command lines. The software first requires the user to define the name of the species, station name, and quadrats used in their study. Then a table is filled with raw data gathered from his study. The list of ecological raw data will then be the basis for calculations. The software automatically calculates basic statistical operations that include summary statistics, spatial pattern indices, diversity indices, and correlation. The development of this software follows the prototyping method that involves the use of interactive prototypes that can be replaced or altered after receiving feedback from evaluations of the clients.