[Rodney King]

Well, what is ecological change? How is that defined? Theoretically its possbile, but how would you do it? The population is every single living thing or organism. To do the study, you would need an appropriate sample.

It's hard to know what the sample size would be, because it is hard to know what the total number of living organisms is. However, let's say we decide that we need a sample size of 1,000.

You would need to probably break that down in to a certain number of ecological climates, and then take a random sampling in each. Let's say we broke it down in to 10 climate zones, and we took a sample of 100 organisms from each.

How exactly would you select random samples?

Do you really think that this guy did that?

[cogitator]

Well, what is ecological change? How is that defined? Theoretically its possbile, but how would you do it? The population is every single living thing or organism. To do the study, you would need an appropriate sample.

There are several ways that this has been done. One of the easiest ways to do it is to look at pollen grains in lake sediments. An assemblage of different pollen grains defines an ecosystem. The researchers then look at lakes at various latitudes and correlate changes in the characteristic pollen assemblages of a given system with temperature records. It's apparently fairly easy to discern ecosystem changes this way (there is an assumption that certain types of fauna are associated with characteristic flora, but that's easy to check with present-day ecosystem research).

It's hard to know what the sample size would be, because it is hard to know what the total number of living organisms is. However, let's say we decide that we need a sample size of 1,000.

That's unnecessary. A few preponderant species are used as key ecological indicators. I.e., the presence or absence of a particular type of pollen grain is a marker of a particular ecosystem. (Oceanographers do the same type of study with organisms called foraminifera.)

You would need to probably break that down in to a certain number of ecological climates, and then take a random sampling in each. Let's say we broke it down in to 10 climate zones, and we took a sample of 100 organisms from each.

You're partially correct here. It's necessary to examine assemblages from different climates.

How exactly would you select random samples?

They don't randomize, as far as I know.

Do you really think that this guy did that?

I don't know what he did, unfortunately. I'd have to read the paper and I probably wouldn't have a strong grasp of the statistical treatment as it is.