GIS In Ecology is pleased to announce the publication of two new GIS workbooks specifically aimed at biologists who wish to learn how to use GIS in their research. In the last decade, GIS has become a must-have skill for those wishing to study marine mammals. However, much of the existing training literature is based around commercial GIS software packages, such as ArcGIS and SPSS, that are too expensive for many marine mammalogists, including self-employed MMOs, small environmental consultancies, NGOs, those working on small marine mammal research projects with limited budgets for purchasing software licences and students working at universities who do not have access to commercial software packages. These new GIS books are specifically based around two free-to-use software package, QGIS and R, and provide the training in the types of GIS skills that marine mammalogists need to be able to do on a regular basis, such as making high quality maps for publications, extracting information from environmental data layers, exporting data for statistical analysis and creating species distribution models. Thus, these books will help marine mammalogists develop their analytical skills and to make the most of the data they collect without requiring the purchase of expensive commercial software licences. These new workbooks are: 1. ‘An Introduction To Integrating QGIS And R For Spatial Analysis’ (ISBN: 978-1-909832-52-7; 136 pages; RRP: USD: 29.99; EU: 24.99; GBP: 19.99): This workbook contains five exercises which demonstrate how to integrate QGIS and R to allow you to conduct high quality spatial analyses by accessing and combining the powerful mapping, data layer creation, editing and processing tools from QGIS and the equally powerful analytical tools from R. These exercises are based around data from a real biological field study and include: creating a GIS project to process your data and create a map suitable for publication; creating environmental raster data layers; linking environmental data to biological data and creating graphs from the resulting data set; and running statistical analyses (GLMs and GAMs) to investigate spatial relationships in this combined data set. Working through these exercises will help the user obtain experience in integrating QGIS and R, and provide them with the confidence to apply these skills to their own research. These exercises are presented in the same easy-to-follow flow diagram-based format used in ‘GIS For Biologists: A Practical Introduction For Undergraduates’, and they are accompanied by images which show the user how their spatial analysis project should look as they progress through the exercises. An in-person training course based on this workbook will be held in Glasgow, Scotland, on the 7th - 9th April 2020. For more information on this course, visit http://gisinecology.com/an-introduction-to-integrating-qgis-gis-and-r-for-sp... 2. ‘An Introduction To Species Distribution Modelling (SDM) Using QGIS And R’ (ISBN: 978-1-909832-22-0; RRP: ; 150 pages; RRP: USD: 29.99; EU: 24.99; GBP: 19.99): This workbook contains five exercises which will introduce you to the basic spatial processing and analytical techniques required to create a biologically meaningful species distribution model (SDM). Taken together, these exercises allow you to work through an example of an SDM from processing your survey data and making raster data layers to environmental variables, through constructing an SDM, visualising its predicted spatial distribution and validating its predictive ability. Working through these exercises will help the user obtain experience in creating SDM using QGIS and R, and provide them with the confidence to apply these skills to their own research. These exercises are presented in the same easy-to-follow flow diagram-based format used in ‘GIS For Biologists: A Practical Introduction For Undergraduates’, and they are accompanied by images which show the user how their spatial analysis project should look as they progress through the exercises. NOTE: This is an updated version of ‘An Introduction To Using GIS In Marine Biology: Supplementary Workbook Three’. An in-person training course based on this workbook will be held in Glasgow, Scotland on the 29th and 30th of January 2020. For more information on this course, visit http://gisinecology.com/an-introduction-to-species-distribution-modelling-in... ================================================================================== GIS IN ECOLOGY - Providing Training, Advice And Consultancy On The Use Of GIS In Ecology Web: www.GISinEcology.com Email: info@GISinEcology.com Need to ask a question about using GIS? Try the GIS In Ecology Forum: www.GISinEcology.com/GIS_in_Ecology_forum.htm Books From GIS In Ecology Staff: GIS For Biologists: A Practical Introduction For Undergraduates; RRP: £24.99 An Introduction To Using GIS In Marine Biology; RRP: £44.99 An Introduction To Using GIS In Marine Biology: Supplementary Workbook One - Creating Maps Of Species Distribution; RRP: £19:99 If you wish to purchase these books, visit: http://www.gisinecology.com/Book_Shop.htm To help the environment, please do not print out this email unless it is unavoidable. ==================================================================================