Journal article
Experimental design and statistical analysis in aquatic live animal radiotracing studies: A systematic review
S McDonald, T Cresswell, K Hassell, M Keough
Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology | Published : 2022
Abstract
Live animal gamma radioisotope tracing enables the monitoring of real-time contaminant uptake and retention in individual animals. It has been employed by ecotoxicologists to understand how animals respond to a variety of aquatic stressors. The use of the technique increases the complexity of the experimental design, resulting in the production of highly detailed and robust longitudinal data of individual animals. The greater complexity of the statistical models that underpin this data create risks from data being treated incorrectly. A systematic review of the literature was undertaken to comprehensively evaluate the experimental design and statistical approaches employed by current aquatic..
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Awarded by Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering
Funding Acknowledgements
This study was carried out with the assistance of an Australian Institute of Nuclear Science and Engineering (AINSE) Post-Graduate Research Award and a Holsworth Wildlife Research Endowment Award from the Ecological Society of Australia, both awarded to S. McDonald. This paper was developed as part of an IAEA CRP on "Applied radioecological tracers to assess coastal and marine ecosystem health" (project code K41019). Thank you to M. Metian and F. Oberhansli for their thoughts and discussion on the design of radiotracing experiments with schooling fish species.