Statistics for Censored Environmental Data Using Minitab and R

Praise for the First Edition

' . . . an excellent addition to an upper-level undergraduate course on environmental statistics, and . . . a 'must-have' desk reference for environmental practitioners dealing with censored datasets.'
-Vadose Zone Journal

Statistics for Censored Environmental Data Using Minitab^® and R, Second Edition introduces and explains methods for analyzing and interpreting censored data in the environmental sciences. Adapting survival analysis techniques from other fields, the book translates well-established methods from other disciplines into new solutions for environmental studies.

This new edition applies methods of survival analysis, including methods for interval-censored data to the interpretation of low-level contaminants in environmental sciences and occupational health. Now incorporating the freely available R software as well as Minitab^® into the discussed analyses, the book features newly developed and updated material including:

• A new chapter on multivariate methods for censored data
• Use of interval-censored methods for treating true nondetects as lower than and separate from values between the detection and quantitation limits ('remarked data')
• A section on summing data with nondetects
• A newly written introduction that discusses invasive data, showing why substitution methods fail
• Expanded coverage of graphical methods for censored data

The author writes in a style that focuses on applications rather than derivations, with chapters organized by key objectives such as computing intervals, comparing groups, and correlation. Examples accompany each procedure, utilizing real-world data that can be analyzed using the Minitab^® and R software macros available on the book's related website, and extensive references direct readers to authoritative literature from the environmental sciences.

Statistics for Censored Environmental Data Using Minitab^® and R, Second Edition is an excellent book for courses on environmental statistics at the upper-undergraduate and graduate levels. The book also serves as a valuable reference for??environmental professionals, biologists, and ecologists who focus on the water sciences, air quality, and soil science.

DENNIS R. HELSEL, PHD, is owner and Principal Scientist of Practical Stats, where he designs and conducts training courses in environmental statistics for scientists. He has over thirty years of experience working with the U.S. Geological Survey and is the author of numerous published articles on nondetect data and statistical methods in the environmental sciences. Dr. Helsel is the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award from the U.S. Department of the Interior (2007) as well as the Distinguished Achievement Award from the American Statistical Association (2003).