SSI offers a variety of services from our trained scientists. Contact us for more information or to talk about your data analysis, education, or other ecological consultation needs.
Application-driven data analysis
Sierra Streams Institute staff data scientists have extensive training and experience in multivariate analysis and can pull underlying relationships from complex ecological datasets. Our approaches include multivariate statistics, structural equation modeling, Bayesian hierarchical modeling, and trend analysis. These approaches are tailored to each particular dataset to answer questions ranging from assessments of climate change resilience and susceptibility to analysis of restoration project targets and outcomes.
Examples of past projects include:
- Development of a multi-metric indicator of stream water quality: The Deer Creek IBI
- Multivariate analysis of benthic community response to stream water quality (presentation here)
- Avian community response to forest fuel reduction
- Using benthic indicator species response to in-stream habitat to identify restoration targets
- Climate change susceptibility and resilience in the Deer Creek watershed
Forest Management Plans
We offer ecologically-informed forest management plans (FMPs) that provide mixed benefits of reduced fire danger, increased drought resilience, and long-term ecological integrity. We consult with both private and public landowners to develop forest management plans that target specific management goals, while recommending best practices based on current available science regarding fire, climate change, and overall forest health. We work with various local registered professional foresters (RPF) throughout the process.
Water quality analysis
Sierra Streams Institute employs an in-house water chemistry lab with capacity to monitor nutrients, bacteria, and various chemical parameters indicative of healthy surface waters. Further, we offer biological sampling packages to use indicator species at your site of interest assess changes in water quality and impacts to the food web. See our Laboratory page for more information and current rates.
Training seminars/webinars
Sierra Streams Institute staff offer various trainings and webinars to fit your ecological management and data analysis needs. Staff trainers have expertise in hydrology, aquatic ecology, restoration ecology, botany, forest ecology/management, data analysis, geology, and biogeochemistry.
Current courses offered are listed below, along with brief descriptions of course content. Contact us for scheduling, or to request training in a topic related to those listed but tailored to your needs:
- Data analysis in R for non-profits (can be single session or multiple in a course).
Introduction to the R statistical analysis platform, with sessions on reading data, data management and processing, and automation of small tasks, followed by discussion and demonstration of various analytical techniques for analyzing stream water quality, ecological community, or climate data. Participants can provide their own dataset to work with for the course.
- Best practices in riparian restoration
- Restoration: from project design to implementation and monitoring
- Forest Management under Climate Change: Balancing between fire resilience and ecological health in forest fuels management projects