Spurious correlation in ecological modelling

Ecology, although by definition a science of relationships, evolved from an intuitive rather than a statistical foundation. Some basic ecological concepts have not been examined statistically, so many ecological models contain ambiguities as a result of imprecise interpretation of the data. Spurious correlation is one example. Spurious correlation can obscure genuine interactions between two populations, and suggest erroneous causal relationships. Statistical devices, such as partial correlations, can be used in both simple models and time series analyses to filter spurious distortions from the data. Ecologists can apply these statistical tools to help interpret associations between interacting populations.