This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Ecologists are collecting more data than ever before, but many still lack confidence in the quantitative skills needed to make sense of it, according to a new paper. The paper, "A century of inertia in quantitative ecology education", published in Methods in Ecology and Evolution, explores why efforts to improve statistics and data analysis training in ecology have stalled for more than a century.
William Kay, senior lecturer in statistics at Cardiff University's School of Biosciences, said, "Ecology as a field has seen profound developments in its methods—with new technologies like environmental sensors, genomic sequencing, satellite monitoring and citizen science projects expanding our ability to capture data about the world around us. "As a result, quantitative skills have become more important than ever for understanding biodiversity loss, climate change, wildlife populations and ecosystem health. "Ecologists have been discussing the need for improved quantitative training for over a century, but progress toward achieving this has been limited." The international team, including researchers from six other universities (St Andrews, Lisbon, Minnesota, Swansea, Edinburgh, and Leeds) and the Serrapilheira Institute in Brazil, suggests that progress has been held back by practical barriers that make educational reform difficult to implement at scale.
They argue that quantitative ecology education is constrained by a combination of factors, including curricula that focus heavily on teaching statistical techniques rather than general concepts, student anxiety around mathematics and statistics, limited staff time and resources, declining opportunities for field-based learning, and treating ecology and statistics separately. "We believe that there are institutional and disciplinary barriers to quantitative training, including that educators who teach quantitative skills are rarely afforded sufficient time within the curriculum to develop the skills that ecologists need," said Kay, senior lecturer in statistics (Teaching & Scholarship). The paper recommends shifting away from teaching statistics as a collection of individual methods and toward developing deeper conceptual understanding.
Students should also be taught how ecological data are generated, where uncertainty comes from, how models represent ecological processes and how evidence supports scientific conclusions. The research challenges the idea that all ecologists should become highly specialized quantitative experts. Instead, it advocates for a model of quantitative literacy in which all ecologists can understand data, communicate effectively with quantitative specialists, critically evaluate evidence and recognize when additional expertise is required.
"When students study quantitative skills, they should be brought together from different disciplinary backgrounds—so that, for example, students enrolled in statistics degrees and those enrolled in biology degrees could both attend elements of quantitative training together," added Dr. Chris Sutherland, University of St Andrews. "Ecologists have always aspired to have strong quantitative skills.
The challenge now is creating educational systems that make this achievable for all," said Dr. Tiago Marques, University of Lisbon. Kay et al, A century of inertia in quantitative ecology education, Methods in Ecology and Evolution (2026).
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